As the whole nation comes under the uniform tax regime — Goods and Services Tax (GST) — on Saturday, the Finance Ministry on Friday said out of the 80 lakh taxpayers of VAT, services tax and others, more than 66 lakh have activated their accounts at the GST portal. The rest 14 lakh taxpayers are in the process to register soon, said a senior Finance Ministry official, adding, “We expect around 5 lakh will enroll in August itself and the rest will follow suit in a couple of months.”
With the launch of the biggest tax reform since Independence, businesses and citizens across the country are bracing for economic chaos. Sources said, “Some large companies have assigned staff fulltime to the transition, while others worry their thousands of small-time suppliers will find it difficult — if not impossible — to register online and comply with filing requirements. Everyone from businesses to the central bank will now watch for the first signs of stress as the tax ripples through India’s largely informal economy.”
As per the Finance Ministry statement, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has been created to function as a common pass-through portal for taxpayers. “On this common portal, taxpayers will submit their registration applications, file returns, make tax payments, claim refunds etc.
GSTN has been provided with a robust IT platform and it will provide interface to 80 lakh taxpayers and thousands of tax officials. More than 66 lakh taxpayers have activated their account at the GST portal,” it said.
All filings under GST, it added, will be done electronically. “While GSTN remains a front-end, at the back end, the IT systems of CBEC and different States interface with the GSTN IT network to provide a seamless end-to-end processing of tax returns for the taxpayers. Around 64,000 officials have been trained on the GST portal from February till June 2017. The GSTN IT systems have undergone load tests, performance tests, vulnerability tests, security and all other mandatory tests,” it said.
On the other hand, industry associations that expect the transition will be painful for SMEs. “Small and medium enterprises are jittery about the transition,” said APK Reddy, President, Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises. “SME sector has been using basic tallying technologies only. That may create some issues with GST compliance. While a majority of them have got the GST numbers, we’re all jittery about complying with the return processes,” he added.
With the deadline ending, protests and industrial strikes broke out across the country over tax rates and compliance burdens. In the States of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan, tens of thousands of textile workers went on strike, while the association that represents sellers of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers protested in the agricultural state of Punjab.