Tax Department Starts Full-fledged Preparation for Upcoming GST

In a bid to roll out smooth and hassle free Goods and Services Tax from July 1st, the tax authority is on their toes to avoid any kind of mishap under the working of this ambitious tax scheme. Also, it is measured that the CBEC will hold on an average 400 trade awareness campaigns and GST outreach programs in the last week of May and third week of June. The CBEC chairperson also demands from its offices to finalize and complete all the GST network related work way ahead than July 1st.

Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman Vanaja N Sarna mentioned in a letter that, “The countdown for the implementation of GST has begun. In this regard, while some formations have involved the state tax officials in matters of training and outreach programmes some others have not done so, so far, I would request that all zonal chief commissioners conduct such training and outreach programmes in association with state officers to ensure coordination and synergy with state governments, I hope the chief commissioners are monitoring training of tax officials in GSTN. I request you all to personally oversee the progress.”

Read Also: GST Preparation Steps for Indian Companies and Traders

According to the statistics, the GSTN has trained 1,924 master trainers in different batches in the month of February while currently, they are training around 65,000 tax officers from both the Centre and states. For the facility purpose, the CBEC had set up GST Migration Seva Kendras—provisional kiosks all through the nation in the month of January in order to facilitate assessees of service and excise tax, as well as state Value Added Tax (VAT) in migration to central GST portals.

The chairperson of CBEC has demanded that all of the facilities should now be converted into permanent GST Seva Kendras “to provide the entire gamut of taxpayer services for trade facilitation and hand-holding” and said that, “I would like to be informed of the initiative for which a report may be sent to me and DGTPS (Directorate General of Tax Payer Services).”