Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA), a premier body representing traders, professionals and industries of Central India held a special Executive Body Meeting to appreciate clearing of major tax reform, Goods and Service Tax (GST) by parliament, which will replace patchwork of levies by the central and state governments with a single nationwide tax.
J. P. Sharma, president of VTA said this is biggest reform in India since independence and longtime demand of trade and industry to enact GST which will transform the country into a “seamless” market, boosting economic growth and cutting the cost of doing business. However proposed tax rate set at around 27 per cent is quite high as compared to global average of 16.4 per cent for similar taxes.
Shrawankumar Malu, vice president of VTA also appreciated proposal by central government to launch three mega social security initiatives on May 9, 2015 consisting of one pension and two insurance schemes, namely Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which are aimed at providing affordable universal access to essential social security protection in a convenient manner linked to auto-debit facility from bank accounts. However its awareness has not reached the masses yet, but soon citizens will be able to take good advantage of this wonderful schemes.
Tejinder Singh Renu, secretary of VTA said that this is a major step forward towards ease of doing business. Highlighting the advantages of GST he said, GST will reduce numbers of indirect taxes and with its GST implementation, tax invoices will clearing display tax applied, by which the customer will know exactly how much tax they are paying on the product they bought or services they consumed. Likewise GST will not be a cost to registered retailers therefore there will be no hidden taxes and the cost of doing business will be lower. Moreover under GST, the tax burden will be divided equally between Manufacturing and services. This can be done through lower tax rate by increase Tax base and reducing exemptions. Biggest benefit will be that multiple taxes like octroi, sales tax, entry tax, excise, service tax, license fees, turnover tax etc will no longer be present and all that will be brought under the GST; doing business will definitely be easier on enactment of this globally successful tax pattern.
Saqib Parekh, executive body member of VTA however said that it would have been lot better had single GST as proposed originally would have prevailed; uncertainty and lack of clarity has still kept some taxpayers worried on true impact of GST.
VTA specifically requests opposition parties to vote in favour of the GST, as if any problem arises, which are bound to happen initially, solutions can be found and appropriately law would be amended. To kick start the economy, the opposition parties should play its role responsibly and assist government in enacting this much required law as proposed from April 1, 2016.
Also present in the meeting were VTA Treasurer Pawan K. Chopra, Joint Secretary Hemant Trivedi & Pravin M. Agrawal; Executive Body Member Amarjeet Singh Chawla, Rajesh Kanoongo, Saqib Parekh, Rohit Kanoongo and Sachin Jain.
