Stating that Goods and Services Tax (GST) was making taxation work more complicated and was adversely affecting the business fraternity, the Merchants Association of Vijayapura and the Bijapur District Tax Practitioners Association have demanded that the Union government bring suitable changes in the new tax regime to make the work easy.
The associations, which took out a rally here on Wednesday in support of their demand, said that the traders were earlier of the view that the new tax regime would ease their work only to realise that it has made it more complex.
In a memorandum that they submitted to the Prime Minister through the district administration, they said that in about 120 days after the implementation of GST, it was found that traders were going through extreme mental harassment in filing tax returns.
“When GST was announced, taxpayers as well as tax professionals were feeling elated as they felt that GST would relieve them from multiple taxation system and the process would be hassle-free. On the contrary, the new system has become more cumbersome and is creating more problems in filing returns,” the memorandum said.
They said that tax laws should encourage businesses with clear vision on taxation instead of creating more complexities.
“Our apprehension is that GST in this form may not bring the desired goals of better tax compliance, more revenues, ease of business and reduction in inflation and an instant spurt in economic growth,” the association said.
The memorandum said that it was nearly 120 days after GST was announced, still more than 50 % of returns of July and August 2017 need to be filed because of the complicated procedure and the number of returns to be filed monthly.
Lack of awareness and shortage of skilled manpower to comply with the provisions of GST was adding to the problem, and on top of that, the penal provisions were extremely stringent, the memorandum said. The association demanded that the government bring radical changes in the system so that it would not only ease the filing of returns but also help in higher tax collection for the government.