In 20 days, we will submit report on thermal bill usage, says Sales Tax department

The Sales Tax Department will be submitting a report on the usage of thermal bills in another 15-20 days. Due to increasing problems faced by customers on the print going missing on the bills, the department had put up a draft circular to seek suggestions and objections on the idea of doing away with the thermal bills.

The draft was put for comments in November and all stakeholders were asked to reply by the month-end. "We have received responses from all stake holders. There are variety of issues that have come up. We are studying them and with in 15-20 days, a report will be submitted to the government with some recommendations. We may have to involve other departments too," said Rajov Jalota, commissioner of sales tax, Maharashtra state.

The responses that have come from consumers, retailers, makers of invoice machines and thermal paper. "The responses have largely come from associations and representative bodies like the Retailers Association of India. We are looking into them and will be reporting to the government. Some manufacturers told us that thermal bills last and only those who use Chinese make may be facing that problem," said an officer.

He added, "We are likely to ask them to use something that does not fade for eight years. That is what our rules state because we do not have a rule that talks about the paper that is to be used for bills. Since thermal bills do not use ink and work on burning the paper, this problem exists. Even in European countries where this was phased out, a transition period of six months to one year was given. By the time the government does this, they will get time to switch over."

A reply given by Retailers Association of India to the department put up on its website stated that they were opposed to the move of normal paper as bill. The reply stated that with time electronic bills should be used and consumers can take a photo copy of the bill if they had issues with its warranty.