Tamil Nadu Food Grains Merchants Association has written to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging the Centre to redress the grievances with regard to Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The president of the association S. V. S. S. Velshankar said that when GST was introduced, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that when GST revenue reaches one lakh crore, tax reductions and tax reliefs will be announced. Now the revenue has crossed more than 1.75 lakh crores. Tax evasion is high due to non-regularisation of tax on many products. Honest taxpayers are affected by this and many have moved out of their traditional business. Due to this there is a heavy revenue loss to the government.
If a committee comprising ministers and officials is formed to facilitate redressal of GST grievances, the representatives of stakeholders will be ready to appear in person to submit and discuss the demands, the association said and suggested Tamil Nadu ministers and officials be part of this committee.
Since GST was implemented from July 1, 2017 onwards, due to less understanding about the Act and not knowing the exact tax rate for products and services, the stakeholders are in a situation to pay tax and penalties with interest at present. Considering this, the stakeholders should be relieved of tax and penalties for the past five years, they said.
The association also wrote to the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, stating that though plastic ban regulation is implemented with a long term view, the regulation should be implemented step by step till an alternative packaging material is available for packing food items.
Source: The Hindu
