People still getting used to new rules: Tiruchy officials

Tiruchy: Eight months have passed since the Goods and Service Tax was implemented in the country, but accountants, traders, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders still have questions on the new tax regime. The GST commissioner and central excise officials of the Tiruchy division have so far conducted over 200 seminars and other awareness programmes in eight districts — Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukkottai, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Tiruchy, Cuddalore and Karur — under its jurisdiction.

The division, which was the first in the State to have a GST facilitation centre, has opened 34 Seva Kendras to help the public. The centre in Tiruchy has so far handled more than 1,500 queries related to the new tax. Officials are also conducting interactions with taxpayers on Wednesdays.

“We were using the Central Excise Act 1944 and other service laws for a long time. Therefore, various stakeholders were very familiar with them. But GST, on the other hand, is a combination of all these laws, which is why people have doubts,” said GST Assistant Commissioner J Ilango.

  

The division has also published books about e-way bills, consumer rights, frequently asked questions about the GST, including in Tamil. “It is highly appreciable that the Tiruchy division has taken up many steps to increase awareness about the GST. In fact, there is a need for more awareness among traders about the GST. Earlier, traders used to completely depend on accountants for filing tax returns. But after the implementation of GST, things have changed and the traders have to work themselves filing and maintaining accounts on a monthly basis,” said S Pushpavanam, secretary of the State Consumer Protection Council.

Except for a handful of auditors, most have become familiar with GST sections. “There were some initial hiccups, but now we are familiar with its sections. However, these seminars and interactions should continue since they are very helpful to all,” said S Sukumar, former president of the Sales Tax Practitioners’ Association.

Source::: The New Indian Express, dated 05/03/2018.