On any routine day, it could have been a fine routine lunch and chit-chat time at little over 2 PM at the Income Tax building on Main Road in the city. But implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in another 10 hours is what has kept all the staff of newly bifurcated GST wing in the building on their toes. Everyone is visibly busy setting up systems to files to anything and everything from here to there, so that a working system could be developed or at least on the day GST is launched.
Apparently, it’s not only traders on roads and in their shops who claim not to be ready for new tax regime on their part, but even government officials appear to be as busy if not less as any bank employee on November 10 last year, the day when bank branches opened for the first time after demonetization. “The situation is almost the same here. You can see everyone busy doing at least one thing or the other, and we have been working tirelessly here in the building since some time. We want to leave no stone unturned from our part of preparedness, as there are people on the other side of the road already accusingly claiming that even government officials are not ready,” said an official who has been recently transferred to GST wing.
It is true that carrying views of friends and follies on both side of shoulders, the government is ready to hammer the bell of GST in existence at Parliament House at sharp 12 Midnight of June 30-July 1. “At the same time, it is also true that no one is very much clear what he is going to do in days to come. As far as we are concerned, we have been shifted to Audit wing of GST. But it is going to take at least six months for things to be streamlined and everyone in the system to be familiar with exactly what and how one have to perform his task,” said Administrative Officer Anil Kumar, who has been transferred to Audit wing with office at Ashok Nagar-Argora Road.
“It used to be large tax office earlier. But now that entire GST wing is combined in only two offices for whole Jharkhand, one in Ranchi and another in Jamshedpur, we are going to have three different verticals coming in this office and none of the verticals is clear about their workplace and other things. We are in process of setting up all those things,” added Kumar.
Meanwhile, ex-Deputy Chief Minister and AJSU Chief Sudesh Mahto has said that the GST was good for traders in State. He, however, added that government needed to listen to the traders’ problems and help them getting their issues solved.