Compliance Cost Won't Rise Under GST: Adhia

The government said the goods and services tax regime, likely to start in two months, will not increase the compliance burden on trade and industry.

“Many people think that implementation of GST would result in increase in compliance cost.This is completely misplaced,“ revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia told netizens on Facebook.

Industry has been apprehensive about GST increasing compliance burden. Adhia said that on the contrary, it would come down because trade and industry won't have to maintain separate books for central excise and value added tax.

“With the rollout of GST, there would be a single tax and accounting for this will be very simple. It can be done through an offline excel form provided by GST Network. If someone uses this form for keeping records of purchase and sales, then he can use this for filing returns. Thus, compliance would be minimised,“ he said.

Adhia, who is spearheading the implementation of GST, said the finance ministry is gearing up for the rollout and officers have already been given five days of training. Besides, IT training is going on, he said.

The government intends to implement GST from July 1. The GST Council headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley has finalised four rates ­ 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.GST will replace multiple state and central taxes such as central excise, value added tax and cess with a single levy and create a seamless national market.

In the new regime, goods and services will be slotted in tax slabs that are closest to their total incidence of current taxation.Adhia said the indirect tax burden may come down. “There would be many goods and services which would be out of GST, so it would provide benefit to common man in respect of taxes. The roll-out of GST would be either tax neutral or there could be reduction of tax burden,“ he said.

The Economic Times New Delhi, 02nd May 2017