GST-related grievances: Assam cabinet forms panel to resolve matter
Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Small traders and businessmen in the state are dissatisfied with some GST-related issues, and the state government has now constituted a committee to note their grievances and submit a report on the same.
On Wednesday, the cabinet discussed the GST-related issues of small traders and businessmen. Regarding this, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said that some apprehensions have been raised among the traders and businessmen involving GST. He said that a committee has been formed with Finance Minister Ajanta Neog and Urban Development Affairs Minister Ashok Singhal to remove their apprehensions. They will talk to the traders and businessmen in six urban centres, including Guwahati, Tezpur, Silchar, Jorhat, Sivasagar, and Tinsukia, to learn about their concerns and submit a report on this to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Trader bodies’ sources said that their main concern is the unusual fines and penalties being imposed under the GST regime. Fines and penalties that many businessmen perceive as unjust and abrupt in nature. Another major error in GST law was in claiming input tax, they said.
They also said that the GST Council’s efforts to evolve a correct system by making changes in the rules, policies, etc. many times from the financial year 2017 to 2022 have culminated in a much more efficient system by 2022. Although the department made changes to their wrong decisions, it did not allow any margin of error for registered persons, they claimed.
Another grievance of the trading community is that, during the period from 2017 to 2022, COVID-19 affected every activity, mainly during the 2019–2020 financial year. Because of the COVID pandemic, the GST department extended the dates for various works like compilation, verification, notices, etc. but did not allow any relaxation for registered traders. For example, if a person failed to pay tax, which was supposed to be paid by the end of September, and paid the same in November with a late fee, etc. in 2019–20, the department served them a notice for the delay. This delay was only two months. But now, in 2023–24, the department is sending notices and asking for interest and penalties on account of it. They questioned why the GST is asking for fines from the traders now, even though the traders suffered due to COVID at that time.
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