Even two months after the GST rollout, authorities and stakeholders are scratching their heads to streamline the complex web of rules. Stakeholders invited the attention of authorities to a plethora of problems at a GST meet on Thursday, but ministers and officials struggled to placate them with assurances of resolving the tax mess.

Industry captains and trade body chiefs sought easier compliance burden in the new indirect tax regime by dropping a few columns in the return form GSTR1.

“One of the key suggestions during the meeting came with regard to GSTR Form 1 which contains details of monthly outward supply. Specifically, there are two tables in the end of the form GSTR-1 that requires additional information which takes a lot of time to fill. The particular demand was that the requirement of HSN summary in Form 1 could be deferred for certain period, for about six months. It was argued that it won't have any impact on revenue collection,” a CEO who was present in the meeting told FC.
Exporters’ body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fiew) demanded exemption from GST for merchant exporters and releasing refunds urgently to improve liquidity situation among traders.

“The minister gave a sympathetic hearing to our concerns and assured all possible help. He has taken all our points positively,” Fieo president Ganesh Gupta said.

Executives representing the SME sector suggested that assessees up to a certain threshold, maybe Rs 1-2 crore, be allowed to pay taxes on monthly basis through the simplified return form GSTR 3B. The other monthly filings should be converted into quarterly filing. They said that the move would reduce a lot of compliance burden. The other issue flagged was problems related to ‘reverse charges’ mechanism under GST. The industry demanded its deferment. In the new tax regime, items purchased from unregistered dealers are subject to reverse charges. The industry has been insisting that they find it difficult to maintain records of such purchases, as most small firms don't have full-time accounting professionals.

For the job work segment, a few participants mentioned that the job workers are facing problems with regards to tax rate mismatch. They urged the government to allow them to opt for composition scheme thus reducing their compliance burden. “It was argued that government recognises that job-workers form part of the SME sector as they have low turnover. Further, if they are not granted the facility of composition scheme they would face hardship. There was also demand to allow them to provide inter-state services,” the executive quoted above said.

As GST Council is scheduled to meet on October 6, the inputs given on Thursday by the industry are set to come up for discussion and consideration.