GST Council focusing on resolving industry issues says Joint Secretary, GST Council

Mumbai, Jul 02 The Government is fighting Covid with negative GST tax revenues, said SK Rahman, Joint Secretary, GST Council.

Addressing the GST Day Celebration organized by PHD Chamber yesterday. He accentuated that the GST Council has held 44 meetings so far, which shows the integrity and seriousness with which industry issues are being taken up for smoothening of operations. He added that there was rate rationalization done on number of goods. Other important decisions relating to online registration; refund claims; QRMP; GSTR 9 & 9C; e-invoicing; extension of due dates for various compliances; e-way bills; waiver of late fees; among other measures have been taken for helping the trade & Industry.

Giving the theme presentation, Bimal Jain, Chairman, Indirect Taxes Committee, PHD Chamber says "GST was envisaged to be Good and Simple Tax but, it's not up to the mark for number of reasons like lots of teething and hurdles on seamless flow of credit across supply chain, buyers are denied credit, even if they have paid taxes to Suppliers, blocked credit, glitches on GST common portal, Rules made in GST are contradictory to the provision of the GST Law, lots of frequent changes does not give certainty in the mind of taxpayers, Parallel proceedings by both CGST & SGST Authority. Mr. Bimal Jain further said that GST will be successful if we create confidence in the mind of taxpayers and encourage new registrants that no penalty going to be levied on them in 3 years of their registration for mistakes or non-compliance of procedural laws so as small taxpayers comes forward and join the GST journey to increase tax base and revenue for the Govt.

He further added that presently businesses are not in position to discharge GST liability from their pocket and therefore small taxpayers should be allowed to pay GST on receipt basis as against accrual basis, as prevalent under the Service tax regime for taxpayers having aggregate turnover of Rs 50 lakh PA. This move will not only help the business fertility for their survival, will also help in their growth, employments and ultimately for the good health of the economy.

Sanjay Aggarwal, President, PHD Chamber felt there are unresolved issues with respect to Input Tax Credit, GSTR 2A/2B, Classification of Goods & Services under HSN/Service Accounting Code, E-Invoicing, Quarterly Return Filing and Monthly Payment of Taxes Scheme (QRMP), Valuation among others. It is important that the Government should facilitate ease of doing business. He further added that it is important to help the industry including our MSMEs who need requisite handholding from the Government for facilitating GST compliances. It is important to streamline procedures under GST to help trade & industry for following voluntary tax compliance.