7 December: GST Stakeholder Feedback Diwas

The central and state authorities organised GST (Goods and Services Tax) Stakeholder Feedback Diwas on 7 December 2019. The aim of organizing this event was to get an on-the-spot response and suggestion to the new system for filing GST Returns to be introduced from next fiscal year. The new return form will be made mandatory from 1 April 2020. The programme was organised on the new system for filing returns across 125 cities to get on-the-spot response and suggestion.

About GST Stakeholder Feedback Diwas

As per Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) about 7,500 trade associations/stakeholders participated in the programme. Besides them a large number of taxpayers, all prominent chambers of commerce and industry, compliance managers and tax practitioners also participated.

The participants were encouraged to upload GST returns (ANX-1 and 2) and give feedback in regard to ease of compliance, deficiencies, improvements and uploading. There was overwhelming response from GST stakeholders and several useful suggestions were received.

The focus was on assessing ease of compliance and uploading of these new returns so that taxpayers as well as traders do not face any difficulty when returns are made legally mandatory.

Background

On November 2019 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman directed CGST (Centre Goods and Services Tax) and SGST (State Goods and Services Tax) authorities to organise a nationwide interaction with stakeholders in order to get a first-hand feedback on new GST returns that are proposed to be rolled out from next fiscal year (April 2020). The finance minister then on November 16, held a meet with select taxpayers, Chartered Accountants and tax practitioners on the same subject. Later, during first National Conference on GST (held on 25 November), Revenue Secretary had also urged states GST authorities to hold similar stakeholder consultations in their jurisdictions as well as to all GST stakeholders to actively participated in these feedback sessions in their nearest CGST or SGST Office cross the country.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2019