Two days after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out at the stroke of midnight, the State Finance Minister Prakash Pant said on Tuesday that the people would be made aware of the nuances of the new tax regime to allay their unfounded apprehensions. “Once they are rightly enlightened they would realise that it would boost economic growth while providing a level playing field to the traders, irrespective of their economic status. Besides, it has done away with the dreaded inspector raj while ushering in a new era of the economic independence of the country,” he said.
He further said that the state government has issued all the necessary notifications for its execution with the officers being instructed to provide all possible help to the businessmen in the initial period of the execution. “We have put into place helpdesks in all the divisional offices and have appointed senior officers as the nodal officers to ease things. Even their mobile numbers have been publicised through advertisements to facilitate the stake holders. Even information about how to make ledgers is being disseminated through print and social media to spare the people any kind of inconvenience,” Pant said.
“At the block levels, common service centres have been made into GST service centres. Besides, 2022 GST mitra have been trained so far. They would help the businessmen on several issues, including how to get register themselves, how to file returns, how to make payment and how to have the refunds. They would work as tax practitioners under GST Act. This would not just provide the unemployed youth with jobs but would also help the traders based in the remote areas get over the problems they might face initially.
All the stake holders have been trained over the past eight months. Several workshops have been organised across the state to ensure that the businessmen are not inconvenienced. We have issued advertisements as part of the awareness campaign for traders, the people and others,” he said.
He further said that to facilitate the traders, the State Government has brought a scheme to settle all the disputes involving the businessmen for the past three years. “Under this, 25537 disputes of the year 2013-14, 87375 of the year 2014-15 and 105086 of the year 2015-16 would be settled. Entertainment tax department being merged with the state commercial tax department, the posts of the tax inspectors post have been notified. Besides, we are developing own online system which would operate until e-way bill is developed under GSTN. With things being overhauled, the old form-26 pattern would no longer be in use. We have informed the businessmen about the documents to be required for transporting their goods. Such documents include tax invoice, delivery challan and bill of supply.
They have been informed too of the process of GST registration. As far as the region- specific relief is concerned we are engaged in raising reimbursement issues with the GST Council. They have released a format as well,” the State Finance Minister said.
Assuring the traders of the fact that the state government is doing everything to help them get acclimatized with the new tax regime, he said that all the officials have been categorically instructed to be practical while dealing with the traders’ problems in the initial days and to help them like friends. “I am asking the traders to be in touch with the GST mitras. In case confusion persists they can contact the nodal officers who would answer all their queries at the help desk. The initial hiccups would soon pass away with the officials working round the clock to help them,” he said, adding that the state government would continue to take initiatives to acquaint the traders with the nuances of the regime till the dust settles down.