In an event in Gurgaon, Manohar Lal Khattar said that ‘GST Aamne Samne’ forum will be started at the divisional level, providing a common platform to taxpayers, lawyers and officers of the excise and taxation department to solve GST related problems in the state.

“At the initial level, it will be started in all the six divisions of the state including Ambala, Karnal, Rohtak, Hisar, Gurgaon and Faridabad, in which taxpayers, tax lawyers and officers will solve tax related problems once in every month.” Besides this, Manohar Lal Khattar also called for promoting voluntary registration for GST and said that three lawyers who get the maximum number of registrations in a year would be felicitated.

The Chief Minister also announced to open a library of books related to tax-related subjects in every district of the state keeping in view the demand put forth by the tax lawyers. He said that this library would be opened on the DITC office premises. Along with this, a waiting hall with a canteen facility will also be made for the Tax Bar Association where the tax lawyers coming to the office for tax-related hearings can sit and discuss with their taxpayers.

Comparing Haryana with other states in terms of tax collection, the Chief Minister said that Haryana has only two per cent of the country’s population, whereas if we look at the area, the total area of Haryana in the country is 1.6 per cent, but the state’s share is 6 per cent of the total tax collection of the country.

On the occasion, deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala said that after the introduction of GST, it took a long time for people to understand it. “In such a situation, VAT collection was also a serious issue.” Chautala said that the government has made efforts to clear the year-wise pendency of VAT-related subjects. He said moving towards digitization, soon arrangements will be made for this, in which the pendency of the oldest date will be cleared first and after that, the pendency will be cleared according to the date and year in the same order.

Stating that countries like Australia, Canada and Malaysia are also facing dissatisfaction among the general public regarding GST, Haryana additional chief secretary (excise and taxation), Anurag Rastogi claimed that “India is the only country where this law has been successfully implemented without any hindrance and public dissatisfaction”. Rastogi said that it is the responsibility of the tax lawyers and their departments to increase the revenue of the government to prevent tax evasion and ensure that people file their correct returns on time.

Source: The Indian Express
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/gst-tribunal-set-up-haryana-expected-start-march-2023-cm-8312291/