Appoint full-time Commercial Taxes Commissioner: traders

The Puducherry Traders’ Federation has called for the immediate appointment of a full-time Commissioner to the Commercial Taxes Department to facilitate a smoother transition to the GST regime.

In a memorandum to Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, the federation president M. Sivasankar and general secretary S. Balou, also sought fine-tuning and realigning the CT Department in line with the Central Taxes Department which is also dealing with the GST.

The federation pointed out that apart from a few introductory classes highlighting the important features of GST prior to the rollout on July 1, 2017, there had not been any interaction with the trade and industry. While the GST has undergone major changes after its introduction — as seen in over 300 amendments and still counting — traders were finding it difficult to understand the ever-changing provisions and requirements of the GST legislations.

Many of these changes were not brought to the notice of the traders or at least the Association. The problems in filing the monthly returns continue to persist even after 10 months of the GST rollout.

The federation wondered how traders would express grievances or difficulties in the absence of any forum to interact with the CT Department officials.

Moreover, the CT Department was also handicapped by the fact that its Commissioner was also doubling up as Additional Private Secretary to the Lt. Governor of Puducherry, “causing his inability to concentrate, contribute and do justice to his responsibilities as CT Commissioner,” the federation said.

Fall in revenue post GST

Pointing out that unlike in the past, people from other States were not coming to Puducherry as there was no tax differential any longer post-GST, other factors such as the non-cooperative attitude of the Department, had led to a drastic decline in the Sales Tax Revenue of the UT — in fact there is a negative growth of over 50% as against the VAT regime.

What is hurting traders further is the frequent raids being led by the CT Department “flouting all norms laid down for conducting enforcement,” the federation said. In spite of clear directions from the Prime Minister that until the GST stabilises, no penal action would be taken for non-compliance, under the CT Commissioner there had been 223 raids in a span of 10 months, or a raid virtually every day. By the Commissioner’s own press statements, deficiencies were noticed only in 39 cases indicating that the raids were not based on concrete evidence or scientific intelligence gathering, but rather driven by whim.

“In all the raids dealers are threatened to pay tax and 200% fine without even issuing show cause notice or explaining how they have arrived at the figures. The enforcement officers are literally threatening the dealers and forcing them to give the cheques for the VAT period though the inspection is conducted during the GST period,” the federation alleged.

The federation urged the Chief Minister to post a full-time CT Commissioner, who is also a GST specialist, in the best interests of the UT and to foster “a more cordial relationship with traders and win their trust and confidence”.

The federation also said that no post in the CT department operated without the approved Recruitment Rules or due approval from the Cabinet and Home Ministry.