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GST still baffles many

Traders, retailers and distributors are still apprehensive of new tax.

The wholesalers in Broadway and market road in Kochi, one of the biggest shopping centres in the state, are apprehensive over the implementation of the goods and services tax and have little idea about the new regime. Business is almost nil in the wholesale shops as confusion prevails and technical glitches over upgrading to the new system remain unaddressed. “There has been no business for the last two days and we have no idea when the situation will improve. The format of bills and invoices is not yet ready. How do I sell to my customers who are not registered? What are the new billing system requirements? These are some of the major concerns of wholesalers,” said D.R. Choudhary, a garment wholesaler in Kochi.

“The business will not pick up until the concerns are addressed. I think it will take a few more weeks,” he added. Though the wholesalers are ready to provide goods for manual bills, retailers are reluctant to take them. “Retailers won’t accept goods as they are afraid of the consequences if the goods are seized,” he said. Without the support of expert software professionals who have knowledge of the new tax structure, it is tough to upgrade the inventory and pricing. “For each product, a code needs to be entered. But we couldn’t log in to the website due to some technical error,” Choudhary added.

Meanwhile, the process of upgrading to the new tax structure is being done, though in a slow pace, by the wholesalers. The new tax structure requires a large number of compliances as each and every transaction must be uploaded. Earlier, traders used to upload a summary of their total sales and purchase. With the GST, the total number of monthly filings will go up three-fold, according to the traders. Earlier, based on the volume of the business, the filing was once in a month or quarter, and in some cases, annual. The majority of wholesale traders expressed the hope that the GST will usher in efficiency and ease of doing business if their concerns are addressed immediately and effectively.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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