New Delhi, July 17 (Agency) Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) will launch a national agitation from July 26 seeking simplification of Goods and Services Tax (GST).More than 50,000 trade organisations of the country will aggressively participate in the national movement, a statement from the Delhi-based traders’ body said on Sunday.It has also planned to organise a huge national rally in the capital city in which national and state level organizations of transport, farmers, self entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, small and medium manufacturers , and consumers will participate.CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the patience of traders regarding GST has been exhausted now.’
More than 1100 arbitrary amendments in the GST law and rules in the last 5 years are a real example of the arbitrariness of the GST Council. The manner in which the Finance Ministers of all the states have distorted the basic nature of GST without consulting stakeholders, it is clear that the Council has no interest in simplifying the tax system and enlarging the scope of the tax net in a healthy manner,’ they said.Bhartia and Khandelwal said the increase in the tax rate of daily use items such as textiles, then footwear which is used by the maximum population of the country, and now bringing unbranded food and other products under the GST tax is a reflection of the ‘feudalist thinking’ of the GST Council.
They said due to discrepancies in tax rates and arbitrary behavior of states, the tax system has been corrupted, which is very necessary to improve so that traders can easily comply with taxes, governments can get more revenue and tax evasion can be stopped.’For this, thorough review of the new rules and regulations of GST should be done. Governments and businessmen have their own experience regarding the GST tax system in the last five years, on the basis of which necessary changes should be made in the tax system to make it a stable and best tax system. There can be no doubt that the GST tax system is the best and for this reason it is necessary to remove the distortions of this tax system,’ they said.From Monday, prices of certain essential items are set to increase following the revision of GST on them. The items which will be costlier include pre-packaged and pre-labelled retail packs like curd, lassi and buttermilk. They will attract a GST at a rate of 5 per cent. Earlier, they were exempt from the ambit of GST.Knives with cutting blades, paper knives, pencil sharpeners and blades, spoons, forks, ladles, skimmers, cake-servers will attract 18 per cent GST. Earlier, they were in the 12 per cent slab.