A recent observation of Gujarat High Court on taxation system in the Country and GST has exposed the complications & hollowness of GST tax structure in India and has also vindicated the continuous stand of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) that the GST has emerged as a most complicated taxation system in the Country. The CAIT has said that after strong remarks of the Gujarat High Court, it is most appropriate that not only the Union Finance Minister but the GST Council and moreover the Finance Ministers of all the States, who are members of the GST Council, should take immediate cognisance of such observations and corrective steps should be taken to make GST a robust and well defined taxation system- said CAIT National President Mr. B.C.Bhartia & Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal in a joint statement today. The CAIT has called for a total review of the GST Tax Act, GST portal and based on the ground relaties, the GST Act must be defined after having due consultations with the stakeholders.
The Gujarat High Court while hearing a case on 11th February,2022 related to the GST tax system remarked that “ It is easier for us to reach the moon than to understand the Intricacies and policies of GST. It is beyond our capacity to understand”. This amply testifies what CAIT has been reiterating & calls for immediate revamp action. Both Shri Bhartia & Shri Khandelwal charged the State Governments that for their own gains, they have greatly distorted the GST tax structure and have killed the basic fundamentals of GST, making it as a most complicated tax system ruining the ease of doing business vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
Mr. Bhartia & Mr. Khandelwal said that the observations of the Gujarat High Court must not be taken lightly. There is a need for a greater introspection as to what compelled the High Court to make such strong remarks and corrective measures should be taken by the Union Government, GST Council and the Finance Ministers of the States beside the bureaucratic machinery which is responsible for the operations of the tax system in the Country.
Currently, the GST tax system is fraught with various anomalies, disparities and distortions rubbing aside its declared mandate of One Nation-One Tax” and therefore, the CAIT has advocated for a thorough point to point review of the GST Act and the rules and therefore, the CAIT has urged Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to constitute a High Power Joint Committee headed by Union Minister State for Finance comprising of CBIC Chairman, senior officials and representative of trade & commerce not only to review the Act and Rules but also suggest remedial measures to simplify and rationalise the tax structure capable of widening the tax base and yielding more revenue to the Government.
A period of more than 4 years of GST implementation in India has given various learning experiences to both the Government and the stakeholders and as such the formation of the Joint Committee will go a long way to make GST a robust, transparent, easy to adopt taxation system in India-said both Mr. Bhartia and Mr. Khandelwal. The CAIT will soon raise this issue with Mrs. Sitharaman, CBIC and State Finance Ministers.
