Calling goods and services tax (GST) as one of the most complex taxation system, which has resulted in misery of traders, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has called for a Bharat Trade Bandh on 26th February. The All India Transport Welfare Association (AITWA), the premier transport body of the country has also supported Bharat Vyapar Bandh and decided a Chakka Jam.
CAIT says, “The GST seriously lacks product innovations owing to the complicated tax structure. There is no consultative mechanism with the traders pertaining to GST law and rules both at centre and the state governments level, which is much against the declared policy of prime minister Narendra Modi for taking stakeholders into confidence while framing a policy or the rules and ‘minimum government-maximum governance’.”
CAIT national president BC Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal, along with AITWA chairman Pradeep Singhal, jointly announced the decision of Bharat Bandh at a three-day national trade conference at Nagpur, which will continue till 10th February.
According to the traders’ body, the current system of GST has converted into a labyrinth of compliances without tangible benefits to the stakeholders. The trade leaders across the country are of a unanimous view that Central and state governments have failed to respond to the miseries related to GST of the trading community of the country.
“The GST council has not only pampered various anomalies and distortions in ‘one nation-one tax’ principle of GST but has not taken any step to simplify the GST taxation system. The only aim of the GST Council so far is how to get more revenue and how to load the traders with more compliance burden without considering the ground realties of trade in India,” it says.
It is matter of fact that a growing consumer economy like India, CAIT says, the trade cannot survive without quick innovations and diversifications in product’s profile as per changing demands of markets.