Shimla, July 10: Implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1 has left the traders across the state in the lurch as utter confusion prevails and even the educated traders are not able to comprehend the complexities of the new taxation regime. To add to their miseries, the arrival of fresh stock has been hampered as supply chain has been disrupted.A majority of the business establishments in the state got the GST number, but there is no supply of goods from Delhi, Ludhiana and other business cities.
The wholesalers at these places are accustomed to the practice of providing “kutcha bill” and retailers also followed the same practice.These wholesalers have not registered themselves under the GST and as the GST number is mandatory for transportation of goods, transports are not lifting the stock.“As the tax rate under the GST has changed, dealers are supposed to print both bills (before GST and after GST) on stock and marking goods worth lakhs of rupees with the new maximum retail price (MRP) is a cumbersome process,” said former president of the Shimla Veopar Mandal Ramesh Sood.
He added that it was a good move in the long run, but at present, confusion prevailed among the business community as we have not been well educated about the GST regime.The Shimla Veopar Mandal would continue to oppose the GST till Himachal was brought on par with Uttarakhand which had been given exemption limit up to Rs 20 lakh per annum, while the exemption for Himachal was up to Rs 10 lakh, said Shimla Veopar Mandal president Inderjeet Singh.
“The worst hit are the small and uneducated shopkeepers who are now at the mercy of charted accountants and accountants and unable to cope up with the complex system,” he said, adding that those dealing in multiple goods right from needle to electronic gadgets and machines are facing a Herculean task of charging different GST on different items.The textile industry, which was paying only 5 per cent Central excise duty, has been brought under the GST and traders want clarity on the rate of tax to be charged. However, hoteliers in the state are a happy lot following acceptance of their demand to keep budget hotels with room rent up to Rs 7,499 per day under the bracket of 18 per cent as the luxury and service tax paid earlier was 19 per cent.
MK Seth, president, Tourism Industry Stakeholders Association, said under the GST, small and medium hoteliers would be benefited besides low-end and budget tourists.“With not much assistance coming from the government, we had to hire two charted accounts and gave them the list of issues and 75 per cent of the queries have been answered,” he said.
Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner KK Sharma said: “We have been consistently providing help to facilitate the traders and are in the process of setting 24 hours help desk. Our helplines are already functional and the department has been regularly holding workshops, seminars and orientation programmes with stakeholders in collaboration with CAs, experts and Confederation of India Industry (CII) with focus on traders and dealers”.
“The Excise and Taxation officers and assistant ETOs have been directed to facilitate businessmen. In case traders are facing supply problem due to non-registration under the GST by wholesalers outside the state, it has to be resolved at the other end,” he added.
However, government claims that GST will bring transparency and everything will be in black and white, but a section of traders who had been getting goods without proper billing and have huge undisclosed stock are facing the problem of converting the black into white.Experts say that the Excise and Taxation Department needs to keep a vigil as traders could resort to under and over billing to clear the undisclosed stock.
Source Tribune India
