The GST Council’s dictatorial functioning over the last five years has made the GST taxation system a complicated process, causing a huge burden of unnecessary tax compliance on traders and making livelihood expensive for the people of the country. High-scale distortions in GST have had a negative impact on trade and commerce, causing widespread unrest among the country’s trading community. In view of this situation, CAIT has demanded a total review of the GST Act and laws to make the tax regime simpler and more rationalised.
CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that the national agitation will begin in Bhopal on 26 July and more than 50 thousand trade organisations across the country are expected to participate in the agitation. The national agitation roadmap includes several events, including a national rally in New Delhi in September. They further said that national and state-level organisations of transport, farmers, self-employed, women entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized manufacturers, consumers, etc., will also take part in the protest.
Bhartia and Khandelwal said that the patience of traders regarding GST has been exhausted now. “More than 1100 arbitrary amendments in the GST law in the last 5 years are a real example of the arbitrariness of the GST Council. The manner in which the Finance Ministers of all the states have distorted the basic nature of GST without consulting stakeholders, it is clear that the Council has no interest in simplifying the tax system and enlarging the scope of the tax net in a healthy manner.” They added that this is against the stated objectives of PM Modi to simplify the life of the common man and ease of doing business.
According to Bhartia and Khandelwal, the increase in the tax rate of daily-use items such as textiles, footwear, and now unbranded food and other products under the GST tax, is a reflection of the feudalist thinking of the GST Council. On the one hand, the burden of inflation on the common man will increase, while on the other hand, the burden of paying taxes and compliance burden on traders will increase. Bhartia and Khandelwal further added that due to discrepancies in tax rates and arbitrary behaviour of states, the tax system has been corrupted, which is very necessary to improve so that traders can easily comply with taxes, governments can get more revenue, and tax evasion can be stopped. A thorough review of the new rules and regulations of GST should be done. Government and businessmen have their own experience regarding the GST tax system in the last five years, on the basis of which, necessary changes should be made in the tax system to make it a stable and best tax system.