Arun Jaitley Holds Key Meet On GST Glitches: 10 Points

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the government is under attack from the opposition, particularly the Congress, on the way it has implemented GST.

Arun Jaitley Holds Key Meet On GST Glitches: 10 Points
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held a key meeting on tax reform GST (File photo)

New Delhi: Industry bodies and exporters raised their concerns about the Goods and Services Tax, including filing tax returns and timely refund of duties, with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today. The meeting, meant to discuss fixing glitches in the implementation of the mega tax reform, was also attended by the chief of the Goods and Services Tax Network AB Pandey. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked the country's top bureaucrats yesterday to "handhold" traders to resolve their problems relating to GST.

Here is your 10-point cheat-sheet to this story:

  1. The key issues traders are facing include fast refund of duties, deferment of filing of GST returns for six months and expansion of the ambit of the composition scheme. Challenges like the GST Network portal, the IT backbone of the new tax process, crashing repeatedly is said to have compounded confusion. All these issues were discussed today, sources said.
  2. Ganesh Gupta, the chief of Federation of Indian Export Organizations, said, "In absence of clear refund timelines, the new duty drawback rates notified on September 21 have added to the woes of exporting and thus effecting their order book position. It is suggested that the transition period of drawback may be extended beyond September 30, 2017 till December 31,"
  3. Today's meeting follows up one held by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu with industry leaders earlier this week.
  4. The government is under attack from the opposition, particularly the Congress, on the way it has implemented GST. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the government of crushing small business with a complicated process, criticising the need to fill multiple forms under the new rules and has said his party will pressure the government to simplify the procedure.
  5. In a stinging critique of the government's handling of the economy yesterday, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said, "a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST has played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them."
  6. At a 'Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation' (PRAGATI) meeting with top officials yesterday, PM Modi said traders across the country are "positive" about GST and are accepting the new taxation arrangement, but that they need "handholding" so that their problems can be resolved.
  7. He urged chief secretaries of states to use the district administration to ensure that small traders are facilitated to access and adopt the new system.
  8. The Prime Minister reiterated that small businesses must register with the GST Network to take advantage of business opportunities and said the common man and the trader must benefit from this "path-breaking" decision.
  9. The Finance Minister had earlier this month constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced in the implementation of GST.  Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, is the convener.
  10. Arun Jaitley has also set up a committee under Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on exports to look into problems faced by the export sector and to recommend to the GST Council a suitable strategy for helping the exporters post-GST.

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