While asking the people to patiently put up with the initial hiccups of the GST rollout, the Union minister of state for law and justice and electronic and Information technology PP Choudhary said that the new tax regime would transform the economic scenario of the country once the infrastructure is put into place. “It would bring nothing short of a economic revolution once the Centre puts into place the infrastructure required for its right execution. It would ensure transparency aside from providing the people, irrespective of classes, a level playing field with one tax one nation system being firmly put into place ,” he said while talking with the media persons in Dehradun on Tuesday.
Referring to Uttarakhand, the minister said that the traders whose annual turnover is Rs 10 lakh and more would have to get registered under GST. Those with the turnover of less than Rs 10 lakh need not to get registered, he said, adding that they can do so of their own accord if they want to. “In Uttarakhand, 85 percent of the businessmen have already registered themselves under GST,” he said. He further said that the Centre is meeting the industrialists and the other business community people to hear out their grievances and their suggestions too. “We are also working hard to address all kinds of grievances. Everybody should thus take it up in the positive spirit,” he added.
Union GST commissioner Pradeep Goyal and the State Tax Commission Sridhar Babu Adyanki said that both the departments are working in perfect coordination with each other.
The Union minister said that at the block levels, common service centres (CSC) are being strengthened with 2022 GST Mitras being trained to assist the businessmen in matters of registration, return filing, payment and refund online. With the youth working as tax practitioners under GST Act, it is providing them with employment opportunities while benefitting the businessmen based in the remote areas, he said. He further said that the works for preparing the stakeholders for the new tax regime had started long before GST was rolled out, adding that several workshops had been held at the district and the block levels over the past eight months. “We are aware of the initial problems the traders would face before they are fully acclimatized with the nuances of the act. This is why the officials have been asked to be practical while assisting them,” Choudhary said.
He further mentioned that to facilitate the traders, the Centre had brought deemed scheme to address the disputes for the last three years. “As a part of it, 217998 issues, including 25537 issues of 2013-14, 87375 issues of 2014-15 and 105086 issues of 2015-16 have been addressed under the deemed scheme. Besides, the entertainment tax department is being merged in GST. The state government has notified state goods and service tax inspectors under GST. Under GSTN, e-way bill is being developed. We have developed online system to help the traders import goods from other states, sans any glitch. Although form-16 system has been abolished the online system is now in force to help the traders import goods from other states,” he said .
He further said that the traders are being instructed over how to import or export goods in sync with the new tax regime. “What they are required to carry are tax invoice, delivery challan and bill of supply,” he added.