New Delhi: The Central GST and State GST authorities organized a nationwide GST Stakeholder Feedback Day (Diwas) on New GST Returns for getting an on-the-spot response to the new GST Returns in 125 cities across the country where over 7500 trade associations & stakeholders participated in the program, said a Press communication from the Ministry of Finance.

The new return form is to be made mandatory from 1 April 2020.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said that the Feedback Day programs are still going on at various places, adding that preliminary reports received with CGST authorities are very encouraging. There has been an overwhelming response from GST stakeholders and several useful suggestions have been received, the Ministry claimed.

The program was widely welcomed by GST stakeholders and tax professional & fraternity, and was significant that besides a large number of taxpayers, all prominent chambers of commerce and industry, tax practitioners & compliance managers also participated in the programs, said the release.

CBIC said that CGST officers explained the new GST Returns and encouraged participants to themselves upload these Returns (ANX-1 and ANX-2) and give feedback in regard to the ease of compliance, uploading, deficiencies and improvements, if any.

The focus was on assessing the ease of compliance and uploading of these new returns so that taxpayers and traders don’t face any difficulty when the returns are made mandatory.

CBIC further said that the detailed feedback would be available by Monday, 9 Dec, and the Board will further work on it to facilitate ease of compliance and convenience to taxpayers. CBIC hailed the program as a step in the right direction for greater transparency in tax administration.

It may be noted that the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had directed the CGST and SGST authorities to organize a nationwide interaction with stakeholders on 7 Dec in order to collect first-hand feedback on the new GST Returns that are proposed to be rolled out from April 2020.

This was a follow up of the Finance Minister’s meeting held on 16 November with select taxpayers, Chartered Accountants, and Tax practitioners on the same subject.

Further, during the 1st National Conference on GST held on 25 November, the Revenue Secretary had also urged State GST authorities to hold similar stakeholder consultations in their jurisdictions.

Published On : 08-12-2019

Source : Indusdictum