SINGLE TAX GST IS REAL SIMPLIFICATION OF TAX STRUCTURE

15092014

             

                  GOVERNMENT URGED TO INITIATE DIALOGUE WITH STAKEHOLDERS ON GST​

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), apex body of the trading community has strongly ​called for early implementation of Goods & Services Tax (GST) in India but ​CAIT​ has ​also ​regretted that Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers deliberating on GST has so far not made public the proposed format of GST. The traders and other stakeholders have been kept aloof from the draft of proposed GST and ​no​ discussion​ in any form​ has been initiated so far by the Empowered Committee with stakeholders. The CAIT has also regretted that the Central Sales Tax which was scheduled to be abolished by year 2010 as per parliamentary declaration of the earlier Government is still in force which is ​further ​complicating the issue.

CAIT National President Mr. B.C.Bhartia and Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal in a joint statement issued here at New Delhi today made it clear that any format of GST containing double taxation shall not be acceptable to the business community. They further said that we are in support of GST taxation system but it should be based on basic fundamentals of GST including uniform tax law across the Country, uniform tax rates in different states, single tax to be administered by single authority and if such a GST is implemented in the Country, only then the taxation system will be simplified and rationalised.

The trade leaders said that wider taxation net and voluntary compliance is the basic fundamental of GST taxation system which will yield more revenue to the Government. This needs to be taken in mind by the Empowered Committee. They said that the Committee released a first discussion paper on GST in the year 2009 and since after that though long span of 5 years have passed but the Empowered Committee has neither spoken any word about the proposed format of GST nor it has taken into confidence the stakeholders including traders, who are real carriers of taxation system. As per media reports both State Governments and Central Government are busy in resolving issues of revenue sharing etc but on which model the revenue will be generated is yet to be decided, which is factually a wrong process. The Empowered Committee did not think it proper to even make an attempt to know the practical difficulties of the stakeholders and their subsequent views on proposed format of GST. It appears that the Committee is taking stakeholders granted on such an important issue.

Both Mr. Bhartia and Mr. Khandelwal said that CAIT and large number of Trade Associations across the Country have made many attempts to draw attention of the State Governments and the Empowered Committee on various disparities and anomalies in current VAT taxation system but no effort has been made by either to resolve such issues and whereas on the other hand various State Governments have added new sections in their respective VAT Act and by way of various notifications, have made the taxation system more complex.

They have urged both Central Government and the Empowered Committee to take stakeholders in confidence on proposed format of GST and its road map and an effort must be made to bring unanimity. Steps should be taken to resolve anomalies and disparities in VAT taxation system and the Union Government should abolish Central Sales Tax immediately. The trading community across the Country is keen to cooperate with the Government in early implementation of GST in India.