The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a body that represents traders and small businesses, on Thursday demanded the Centre order a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry against companies entrusted with running the GST portal. “The GST portal is a work in progress even four months after the roll-out of the new tax regime. It has caused mental torture to traders,” CAIT Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal said. The association of traders blamed Infosys for the glitches. The IT services firm has vehemently denied any negligence on its part.
In another development, trade bodies and sales tax lawyers on Thursday took up with the finance ministry the problems they are facing on account of “glitches” in the GST Network. A delegation of the Gujarat Sales Tax Bar Association, Ahmedabad, met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the “recommendations of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani”.
According to GSTBA, the delegation drew Jaitley’s attention towards “glitches and non-working” of GSTN, and other related issues that taxpayers and tax professionals were facing. It requested simplification of compliance procedures in filing GST returns and forms. Gujarat votes next month and there have been protests in the wake of GST implementation. The association said Jaitley met them for 30 minutes.