Centre to seek input to address GST concerns

NEW DELHI: GST commissioners across the country will seek feedback from taxpayers and practitioners next month as the government moved to address all concerns related to filing of returns, while asserting the overall IT system is robust.
All circles have been instructed to obtain inputs on the new tax return forms on December 7, even as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and the GST Network sit down to address some of the issues that were flagged by chartered accountants and representatives of small businesses and retailers on Saturday.The new returns have to be used from April.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had invited representatives from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Confederation of All India Traders, Laghu Udyog Bharti, Rajasthan Tax Consultants Association and an independent chartered accountant from Kolkata to file returns on a realtime basis, using current forms, and provide feedback. Revenue secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that GSTN and CBIC will also address the issues at their own level.
“This is an evolving system and suggestions for improvement, even if one taxpayer is facing problems, is helpful,” Pandey said.
Ever since GST was launched over two years ago, small businesses have complained of a heavy compliance burden and suggested that refunds are not flowing on time. The exercise on Saturday was meant to address these concerns.
Some of the issues flagged included the ability of taxpayers to rectify mistakes which often creep in during the process of filing returns apart from steps to download data for a specific period instead of the current system which only allows monthly downloads.
Similarly, the tax practitioners and taxpayers want the government to address the issue of data matching for input tax credit since small businesses have been allowed to file quarterly returns, while the bigger entities have to file monthly.