Traders against proposed GST; say it is more complex

With the government hopeful of passing Constitutional amendment bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the forthcoming Parliament session, traders are opposed to it, saying that in the current form, it is more complex and needs to be simplified.

"The purpose of GST is to make the indirect tax structure simple. However, in the proposed format it is more complex. We demand single GST taxation structure so that traders may be required to file only one return," Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), told reporters here.

The central and state GST are to be paid to the accounts of the central and state governments separately, he added.

Khandelwal said there is also levy of an additional tax on supply of goods and services, not exceeding 1% in the course of inter-state trade or commerce, for a period of two years.

"We demand single tax GST with single authority coupled with uniform act and tax rates across the country and develop India on a concept of 'one Mandi'. The stakeholders cannot be taken for granted and the proposed form of GST is not acceptable to us," he added.

He said the traders' body has recommended to government that besides e-compliance, manual compliance should also be made applicable in the initial period for transitional purposes.

Also, the VAT registration number should itself be construed as GST number and the procedure of obtaining new GST registration number should be made simple and easy, he added.

Khandelwal said that to make traders aware about the advantages as well as disadvantages of the proposed GST, CAIT will hold 40 seminars across the country.