On July 1, the Government of India launched the most awaited economic reform, the GST, with a slogan, “One nation, one market, one tax”. And July 2 was the second day of the implementation of GST and to know the effects of this new law The Pioneer talked to a cross-section of businessmen of Hazaribagh town.
The founder chairman of Hazaribagh Chamber of Commerce, Rajendra lal said that the market is passing through a phase of confusion, it can be hoped that after a few days everyone will get acquainted with this new law and then the market will be back on track. The fear of return of “Inspector Raj” is haunting the businessmen so the Government will have to take care.
Mangilal Bhuramal Jain, owner of a consumer goods agency said that since we deal with some identified products so there is no problem for us. Very soon we will adapt to the system but the main problem is with retailers who sell many items from their counters. It is very difficult to keep account of every product so they are worried and against GST.
Raj Kumar Jain who runs a food grain shop in the town said that he is doing business as usual because there was no tax on food grains before GST and food grains have been kept out of tax limits under GST as well. It can be hoped that in the days to come the consumers will get benefited but today the market seems to be in confusion.
Watch shop owner Md Iqbal said that we are selling items at old rates because we are not aware of the new GST taxation regime and its effect on our business.
Sanjay Kumar who runs hardware shop also gave a similar answer when asked about effect of GST on his business. Vivek Sharma of Shriram Bhojnalay said that we purchase items from local market where there is no tradition of giving any bill so it is not clear that how will we manage credit of tax paid.
Bank manager Sanjay Kumar said that service charges of bank services have been increased from 15 to 18 per cent and it has become operational from yesterday in our bank also.
Sales tax officer Sanjay Kumar said that all those traders registered with VAT system will have to migrate to GST and the department is ready to provide every help to them. On the other hand, the district administration has constituted a five member committee to assist the traders so that the confusion among them should be removed.