A mobile app to help consumers verify the rate of GST levied on the product they purchase, or the service they access, and to assist the tax authorities in crackdown on enterprises retaining the tax they collect, is to be launched shortly by the Telangana government.
The Commercial Taxes Department and IIT-Hyderabad have developed the TGST app and its beta version is available, Principal Secretary-Commercial Tax and Excise Somesh Kumar said here on Thursday.
Explaining the benefits, Somesh Kumar said a consumer needs to merely upload a photo of the bill issued to them by an enterprise on the app. The photo gets “automatically uploaded to the server and then (the bill) is processed by us. The consumer gets a feedback on whether the enterprise was enrolled under GST and was charging the correct rate.”
It would bring in more transparency and act like a feedback mechanism. The app would also provide information on whether the enterprise had opted for the composition scheme under GST, he said. Firms that have opted for scheme are not supposed to levy tax, including a hotel, Mr. Kumar said in an interaction with press persons on the sidelines of conference on ‘GST - Post Implementation Issues’.
Earlier, addressing the conference organised by industry body Assocham, the senior official said it has been 100 days since the roll-out of GST and revenue income was improving. The GST Council, he added, was addressing issues concerning the exporters as well as small and medium enterprises. In two months, ₹2,800 crore had been collected in the State, he said.
Additional Commissioner-GST (Rangareddy) Manjula D. Hosmani said at the conference that the government was aware and reacting proactively to the concerns related to GST. As of October 5, of the 2.21 lakh registered assessees under GST, around 1.37 lakh had filed their GSTR-3B, she said, advising them to avoid last minute rush in filing returns.
Former Chairman of CBEC S. Dutt Majumder said GST is a work in progress and the glitches were being addressed.