The state government allayed apprehensions of the business community that they would face persecution after the new tax regime `Good and Service Tax’ was enforced from July 1. They were told that the government would ensure that they did not face any hardship as a sewuel to the GST enforcement.
The new tax regime billed as `One nation one tax’ will come into force from July 1. The traders have given a call for a pan-India strike from June 30.
Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma met with leaders of trader community to answer their queries and allay misgivings about the new tax regime on Wednesday.
He said there was provision of penalty in the GST Act in case tax evasion was detected. But the provision of arrest will come into force in case of the evasion was above Rs 2 crore. Tax evasion up to Rs 5 crore is a bail able offence.
Sharma explained that if tax evasion was over Rs 5 crore, then it became a cognizable non-bail able offence. He said that as much as 99 percent traders were not covered by these provisions and only 10 per cent traders had annual tax liability of Rs 5 crore or more.
Seeking support of the business community, the minister the said that they should support the new tax regime as they had supported demonetization of high value notes by Union government on November 8, 2017.
The minister said that UP will be a net gainer from the GST as it’s a destination tax instead of being the origin tax.
The Commercial Tax department also made a representation before the traders to remove confusion about teh GST. An official said that apprehensions of the traders about spurt in prices of cloth and textiles after the GST were without basis. “After the new regime is in place, there will be significant slump in price of building material, iron and steel, cement, two wheelers, coal, biscuit and readymade garments,” he said.
Traders demanded from the government for simplification of the rules and regulations of GST, rollback of mandatory E-bill system and restoration of manual bill and merger of Mandi fee with the GST.