GST Commissioner warns fictitious industrial units

Following arrest of a Jodhpur Rajasthan based trader for GST evasion worth nearly Rs 10-crore in city, Ajay Kumar Pandey, Commissioner-GST & Central Excise, Jamshedpur has warned industrial units which are fictitious and exists only on paper.

Addressing a gathering in the city on Friday he said that existence of such units hampers the soul of GST which is seamless flow of credit. The commissionerate will take strict actions such units”, said Ajay Kumar Pandey.

Addressing the opening session of the Seminar on GST and e-Way Bill organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Pandey stated that the GST Commissionerate is there to help industry and trade and not to restrict its growth. He further stated that the government is considering the possibilities of increasing the threshold limit for mandatory e-Way from the existing limit of Rs.50,000/- and the same would be implemented very soon.

Killol Kamani, chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council stated that in principle the e-Way bill is a major step towards e-governance. The e-way bill provisions aim to remove the ills of the erstwhile way bill system prevailing under VAT in different states, which was a major contributor to the bottlenecks at the check posts. He stated that now there is no need for separate transit passes in each state for movement of goods and it is a marked shift from departmental-policing model to self-declaration model for the movement of goods. However, Mr Kamani opined that adequate checks and balances need to be made robust to ensure that a truly transparent and effective risk-based approach to on-road enforcement is put in place. Mr Kamani requested the GST Commissioner for his help in increasing the threshold limit for mandatory e-Way to at least Rs. 100,000/- and also to reduce the number of supplementary invoices to be generated.

Dhanu Kumar, Convener, CII Jharkhand Economic Affairs & Taxation Panel during his address congratulated all stakeholders on the completion of one year of GST - the most transformative tax reform in India ever. He stated that the GST is the mother of all tax reforms which has subsumed over a dozen local levies and transformed India into one nation, one Tax and one Market.

This led to economic growth, simplicity for people and transparency in the economy. He said that the year long journey has indeed been remarkable both for the sheer variety of challenges that its implementation has thrown up and for the willingness and ability of policy makers and tax administrators to rise up to these challenges and respond befittingly.