Need to create awareness on GST among rural masses, says MLA

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) will reduce the tax burden on traders. The government must strengthen the working class with adequate facilities, KR Nagar MLA Sa Ra Mahesh said here on Monday.

He was addressing a session on Insight into GST, organised by the Commercial Taxes
Department, the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), the Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at B N Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences, Manasagangothri.

“GST is a good move and will benefit taxpayers. As a large number of people live in rural areas, the authorities must organise awareness programmes and avoid the interference of middlemen. The MCCI and the FKCCI should conduct awareness programmes at taluk level,” he said.

Mahesh, who is chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said that even though traders were duly paying taxes, lower-rung bureaucrats in the Commercial Taxes Department were harassing them.

“Higher officials should take steps to prevent harassment. The government can introduce welfare schemes for people only through tax collections. Though the working class contributes enormously, the administration has failed to provide it adequate facilities such as proper infrastructure,” he lamented.

Demonetisation blues
The MLA further said many traders were unable to pay taxes because of demonetisation.

Additional Commissioner for Commercial Taxes B V Ravi said, “It is high time we had an insight into the GST. The GST is a system of indirect taxation, which merges 17 existing taxes into a single system of taxation. It was introduced by the Constitution Act of 2016 for the benefit of taxpayers. The new system should come into existence by September. With the new system, the quality of goods and services would improve as the prices of goods, except transport charges, will remain uniform all over the country,” he said.

Joint Director for Commercial Taxes (Audit) Basavaraju, Deputy Commissioner (Audit) D P Prakash, FKCCI Sales Tax Committee chairman B T Manohar, vice-president Sudhakar Shetty and MCCI president A S Satish were present on the occasion.
DH News Service