MillenniumPost
Bengal

'Many issues need to be resolved to make ideal GST'

Maintaining a studied silence on the GST rollout date, Chairman of the Empowered Committee of Ministers on GST, Amit Mitra, on Saturday said: "Many issues needed to be resolved to make an ideal Goods and Services Tax".

The state governments will have exclusive rights for collecting tax from the businesses up to the turnover level of 1.5 crore under Goods and Services tax (GST) regulations.

Mitra said there are many 'unresolved, unsettled' issues in GST regulations. But he made the Central government change its mind in some of the issues. "Issues like Integrated GST or IGST, tax on territorial water, dual control over tax payers are the unresolved issues. There are still many questions to be asked," Mitra said.

However, he confirmed that the state governments will have single control on 90 per cent of the GST payers falling within Rs 20 lakh to 1.5 crore annual turnover.

There are roughly around 28 lakh traders in India that fall under this bracket and around seventy to eighty thousand of them are in Bengal.

"This is what we have achieved so far," Mitra said adding: "I pointed out 15 areas which are still unclear, 13 specific sections of law required to be unanimously agreed by the members," he said at the sideline of pre-budget interactive session with Chambers of Commerce and trade bodies.
On the issue of territorial water, Mitra said: "Every state along the coastline has been collecting tax.

GST regulations said that this will be the Central territory. We expressed our displeasure on this. Later the Centre convinced to give taxation rights to states in 'deemed manner."

"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier instructed me to fight for small businessmen. We supported GST only for the benefit of small businessmen and MSMEs. We'll fight till the end," said Mitra.

"There are some areas which needs simplification and consensus. The main motto of the GST should be ease of doing business," Mitra added.
Next Story
Share it