Finance and Commercial Taxes Minister Jayant Malaiya has said that Form-49 and other procedures of the Commercial Taxes Department will be simplified. It will be ensured that business persons face no problem.
Malaiya held pre-budget discussions with representatives of various trade associations, tax consultants and chartered accountants of the State here on Monday. Principal Secretary Commercial Taxes AK Rai, Inspector-General Registration Deepali Rastogi and Commissioner Commercial Taxes Amit Rathore were also present.
The representatives of trade associations said that rules and procedures should be simplified as far as possible and taxation should be rationalised compared to other States. They urged to simplify Form-31 and review pendency of Form-4. They said that ITR refund should be given within two years. Interest may also be given on it by way of relief.
Representatives of wheat traders said that entry tax should be imposed on flour, suji and maida to help State's flour mills. Mandi tax should not be realised twice on import of wheat from Punjab, Haryana and UP. They urged that facility to file challans from all banks should be given. Tribunal should be set up at Jabalpur and tax exemption limit on turnover should be increased from Rs10 lakh to Rs20 lakh. They also urged to categorise Bhama Shah Awards Scheme and exempt marriage gardens from entertainment tax.
It was also suggested that single-point tax benefit should be given to readymade garment business. Businessmen of small places should be educated about goods and service tax. Representatives of small industries urged that local manufacturers should be given point tax benefit. Facilities offered in food parks should be given to food units also. It was also suggested that registration fee on affordable houses should be reduced and discrepancies in input tax returns removed. Either service tax or VAT should be realised from restaurants.
Vice-president of Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce Govind Goyal also put forth a number of useful suggestions. He said that there should not be dual taxation on industries. Tax should be imposed either on purchase or sale. Taxes should be rational and it should be ensured that businessmen do not face difficulties.
During discussions with tax consultants, chartered accountants and their representatives, the Finance and Commercial Taxes Minister sought suggestions from them to make arrangements simple and relevant.
It was suggested at the meeting that level of state's portals should be improved further and all banks should be included in them. Tax consultants identified some discrepancies in various procedures and suggested ways to remove them. They said that disposal of cases should not take much time. Difficulties in filing returns should also be removed. The tax consultants said that unauthorised persons should not be allowed to work as tax consultants. They said that amendments should be made in the beginning of quarter or financial year.
Principal Secretary Rai assured that earnest efforts are on to simplify the procedures. Everything will be online in future. Commissioner Commercial Taxes Amit Rathore gave replies to queries of representatives' commercial associations and tax consultants.