UT gears up to implement GST

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, March 29

While the Department of the Excise and Taxation has geared up for the implementation of GST, traders of the city are expecting a hassle-free tax regime. An officer of the department said that more than 14, 000 dealers had been registered so far for the GST regime.

Ravinder Kaushik, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner (AETC) said the process for migration of existing dealers under the VAT/CST Act was started from December 16, 2016, for Chandigarh and the provisional IDs and passwords for logging onto the GST portal have already supplied to them. He said the department had completed the initial preparation for the new tax regime.

On the other hand, the traders expect that the new tax regime will end red tapism and make the system transparent. Ajay Jagga, advocate and expert in the GST laws, said that the current indirect taxation system created borders within borders in the country due to multiple state laws, goods and services tax will replace 17 indirect tax levies, including VAT, service tax, excise duty, luxury tax and entertainment tax among others so this will make work simpler. The check barriers will be removed although enforcement of mobile wings will stay, this will reduce the transportation time and costs.

He said that in the long run, the lower tax burden could translate into lower prices on goods for consumers. The suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers will be able to recover GST incurred on input costs as tax credits. The tax will be consumption based instead of destination based.

Everything will be online i.e. registration returns all payments and less space required in offices. The registration process will be over in 72 hours which is now done in 30 days.