“We look
forward to assisting and facilitating industry in the adoption of GST in all
possible ways. CBEC will help industry in the transition to GST and our
enforcement machinery will be liberal in enforcement of the panel
provisions for the initial three to six months of GST implementation”,
said Ms Vanaja N Sarna, Chairperson, Central Board of Excise & Customs.
Ms Sarna was delivering the keynote address at the CII Interactive Session on
GST with the Ministry of Finance in Delhi.
The CBEC
Chairperson further stated that CBEC has left no stone unturned to train all
its officers, both in the Centre and at the States, before the introduction of
GST. “We have undertaken a large number of awareness campaigns, which have been
widely attended and well received by the tax payers. The CBEC has issued FAQs
and formulated sectoral groups, some of which have already come out with their
reports. We expect all our officers not only to be well conversant in the GST
law and rules, but also be ready to handhold industry in the registration and
report filing procedures,” she added.
Mr Navin
Kumar, Chairman, Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN) stated that out of the 80 lakh existing
taxpayers, more than 70 lakh have already signed up for migration under the GST
regime. He suggested that industry should make a real time entry of invoices
and upload the same on the GSTN utility regularly. Mr Kumar further addressed
the myths surrounding GST and clarified that GSTR 1, 2 and 3 are parts of the
same return and not separate forms per se. Also, Mr Kumar emphasized that there
will not be a regular internet connectivity needed for GST and uploading data
is a matter of minutes. The process will be simple, easy to understand and
assessee friendly, he stated.
Mr
Harishanker Subramaniam, Chairman, CII Core Group on GST congratulated the Government on the successful
implementation of GST. “While such a mammoth task is bound to have its share of
glitches and concerns, the key to all such issues is the receptiveness of the
Government. The Government has been actively encouraging and facilitation
people towards the adoption of the biggest tax reform since independence, with
an assurance to have a softer approach towards tax payers during the first few
months of implementation”, said Mr Subramaniam.
New Delhi
July 19,
2017