GST amendments worrying: Tax experts

Amritsar, August 12

Multiple amendments in the GST are causing confusion among dealers and tax practitioners, opined income tax practitioners in the two-day Amrit National Tax Conference, which concluded here on Sunday.

Dr Naveen Rattan, Chairman, National Tax Conference, said frequent amendments indicated that the government itself was not clear about the law. “There are several deficiencies in the GST and its compliance is extremely complicated. Filing of returns is an uphill task. It is not a well settled law and consists of numerous legal complications. The previous law regime was well established and had been in practice for decades. Hence, in case of any dispute they could approach the courts. Various income tax practitioners were unanimous in their opinion that ruling must be given on priority in case of any dispute over filing of returns. Recurrent software problems and IT glitches make the return filing process a Herculean task.

Many tax professionals reminded the government of “forgetting its promise of “one tax one nation”. They hailed the e-way bill as it had brought down the scope of corruption in trade. A souvenir, containing 21 articles over GST and Income tax current problems, was released by Supreme Court Judge AK Sikri, who was the chief guest. Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Krishna Murari was the guest of Honour.

Punjab and Haryana High Court Tax Bench Judges Ajay Kumar Mittal, Rajesh Bindal, Avneesh Jhingan and Inspecting Judge of High Court (Amritsar) Surya Kant also took part. — TNS