New Delhi, June 19 (Agency) Ahead of the GST Council meeting to be held in Chandigarh on June 28-29, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to review afresh the GST Acts and Rules which also need greater simplification.The CAIT has planned to meet finance ministers of all states to put forth its demand.The Delhi-based traders’ body is holding a two days convention of trade leaders of the country at Nagpur on 25-26 June, 2022, to draw a strategy for a national campaign on both GST and e-commerce which will begin from July 1.
Nearly 100 prominent trade leaders of all states will have a brainstorming session at Nagpur during the two days’ convention, a statement from the CAIT said.A couple of days back, CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal had met Sitharaman and stressed the need of widening the tax base of GST by simplification of GST Act and rules which will yield more revenue to both central and state governments.He also suggested formation of a Joint GST Committee at every district of the country composed of senior tax officials of GST and trade leaders of the respective district.’The committee will be assigned the task of monitoring GST implementation and redressal of traders grievances and make all efforts to onboard more and more people under the GST regime.
The rate rationalisation of GST should be done after consulting stakeholders. He laid much stress on keeping textile and footwear under the tax slab of 5 per cent’ he said.CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said trading community of the country is of the considered opinion that currently large number of items falls in wrong bracket of tax rate and therefore rates rationalisation will give an opportunity to recast the GST tax slabs and right item in right tax rate should be placed to avoid anomalies and disparities.They said trade associations of the country under the flag of CAIT have begun deliberations on rate rationalisation.’
Though it’s a very preliminary stage but it is opined that exempted category should include only essential items and 5 per cent tax slab should be made for raw materials or items used as integral part of any finished product and items related to Roti, Kapda aur Makaan including footwear,’ they said.’The trading community is also of the view that 12 per cent tax slab should be abolished and in place a new slab of 14 per cent which is a revenue neutral rate of 12 per cent & 18 per cent should be carved out for items falling currently in 18 per cent tax slab. High value items like gold, silver, jewellery etc should be placed under 1 per cent tax rate. The slab of 28 per cent should be restricted to only six items and the rest of the items of 28 per cent should be categorised under 14 per cent tax slab,’ they added.For creation of a new tax slab in place of 5 per cent , or any other new slab, a comprehensive opinion should be taken from all stakeholders as the matter is directly related to the trading community of the country, they said.