IN FOUR YEARS GST HAS BECOME COLONIAL TAXATION SYSTEM-Harkesh Mittal President CAIT Punjab

IN FOUR YEARS GST HAS BECOME COLONIAL TAXATION SYSTEM-Harkesh Mittal President CAIT Punjab

Ludhiana : (P9 beauro) : 

” On completion of four years of GST implementation in India today, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said that much against the declared spirit of GST as Good & Simple Tax , the GST has become a “colonial taxation system” not compatible with the ground realities of business conducted in India and available resources with the traders. Various amendments and introduction of Rules under GST in the recent past have made the taxations system much complicated and put much compliance burden on the traders,  which is also against the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for bringing ease of doing business. The CAIT has sought an appointment with the Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sithraman to discuss current situation of GST and as to how it can be made more business friendly. 

It is not alone the Central Government but largely the State Governments are more responsible for distorting GST taxation system and bringing disparities and anomalies in GST making it a more complex system and a big headache for the traders-said Mr. Bhartia & Mr. Khandelwal 

CAIT National President Mr. B.C.Bhartia and Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal said that even after 4 years of GST implementation in India, the GST portal is still struggling with many challenges. The rules are amended but the portal fails to update with said amendments timely. So far no National Appellate Tribunal has been constituted. No Central Advance Ruling Authority has been constituted giving a free hand to States to interpret the law in their own way distorting the fundamentals of “One Nation-One Tax”. The GST Authorities are more interested in GST compliances but never thought that large chunk of traders in the Country are yet to adopt computerization in their existing business. format and no step has been taken to equip the traders with computers etc.

Mr. Bhartia and Mr. Khandelwal said that in recent past, the GST Council has thrown all canons of natural justice by empowering the Authorities to cancel GST Registration of any trader without giving him any notice or an opportunity of hearing. Unfettered and arbitrary powers are given to officers without realizing the misuse of such powers which may lead to corruption. The GST law has been greatly distorted by the Authorities which is evident from the fact that since the date of GST implementation till 31st May, more than thousand notifications have been issued and interestingly the traders have not been allowed to rectify their returns even for once. In such a situation how can we expect traders for timely  compliance of the taxation system.

Mr. Bhartia and Mr. Khandelwal said that they wish to resolve these and other core issues by way of dialogue with the Finance Minister. Similarly, the issue will also be taken up with State Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers. We are more inclined to join hands with the Government in widening the tax base, increase in revenue but with simplification and rationalization of tax structure.