RAJKOT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
SHIVLAL BARASIA- President, PARTH GANATRA- Vice President, V. P. VAISHNAV- Hon. Secretary, GAUTAM DHAMSANIA- Hon. Jt. Secretary, PRANAY SHAH-Hon. Treasurer
RCCI/204 Dated: September 7, 2017
Shri Arun Jaitley
Hon. Finance Minister & Chairman GST Council,
Ministry of Finance, Government of India,
New Delhi.
Sub: A humble request to relook at the GST provisions as there are unprecedented difficulties (Procedural) in it.
Dear Sir,
When present Government introduced the historical transformation in the history of indirect tax mechanism through GST, we as a responsible institute gave our total support for that with a hope that judicious provisions will be made. After 2 months of GST implementation, it is practically felt that there are so many lacuna in it. There are big short falls in the provisions as well as in the administration fronts.
Sir, we are really sorry to say that there is a deep sense of disappointment & unrest like situation among the small & medium business enterprises. These People feel that they are being cheated & labelled as tax evaders. They are the backbone of our economy & great employment generators. The procedural provisions are made as if they are thief. The ground level conditions are dismal, pathetic & there is an undercurrent of revolt among majority of these businessmen.
Sir, time has come to see at their practical difficulties & need to address, the issues at once. They feel that the Government is only for big corporate houses & they are being ignored & getting mitigated at every stage.
We are submitting few suggestions which are highly essential to get incorporated to ease out the practical problems of small & medium enterprises.
Hope, that the GST council & Government will look at these with a constructive approach.
With regards,
Yours sincerely
Shivlal Barasia
President
Copy to :
(1) Shri Nitinbhai Patel, Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.
(2) Shri P. D. Vaghela, Commissioner & GST Council Member, Government of Gujarat, Ahmedabad.
Vital Points where rectifications needed :
1) Cancellation utility not provided by GSTN till date.
Many traders and service providers who were registered under state VAT laws / Service Tax / Excise law prior to 30-6-2017 have been migrated under GST law w.e.f. 01-07-2017 but they do not wish to continue their registration under GST their turnover less than threshold limit Rs. 201acs/10Lacs as the case may be.
These suppliers are not in a position to get their registration cancelled as utility of cancelation is not available at GSTN portal till date. Due to this reason, although they do not wish to continue registration, they are forced to file return for the month of July for which last date has already lapsed on 25-08-2017 but government has neither come out with any notification that such suppliers need not file the return for July 2017 nor with the clarification that the cancellation utility whenever available on GSTN portal will be effective from 01-07-2017, and non filling of return will not be treated as default.
This is a great hardship on such suppliers. Necessary clarification/Notification is required immediately and cancellation utility be provided on GSTN portal.
2) Amendment / rectification / revision in form 3B.
As per CGST rules, where due date for filling of return in form GSTR-3 has been extended, a monthly return in form GSTR-3B has been prescribed in lieu of regular returns in from GSTR-1,2 & 3. Due to the problems being faced by the businessman and the professions, the due date for filling GSTR-3 has been extend, however, it is expected that the registered dealer may pay their taxes within time. This purpose could have been achieved simply by asking the dealers to pay their taxes by way of challan. Instead of doing same, Government has prescribed a monthly consolidated return by way of GSTR-38 which is a very complicated form and also time consuming. Moreover, once any error is crept while filling the form, there is no mechanism to rectify the error accordingly, it is requested to create a mechanism so that necessary amendment / rectification / revision may be done in from 3B.
3) Composition Scheme.
As per the act, composition dealer under earlier regime have migrated to GST regime as per regular scheme. Post migration, there is no option available to the dealers to revert back to the composition scheme, they are enable to exercise this option due to technical glitch in GSTN. In such cases, it is not clear as to whether the dealer has to file GSTR-3B from declaring “Nil” return or they are required to wait till expiration time line of 30th Sep 2017 for exercising the option. It is further requested to extend the date for opting composition scheme.
We may bring to your kind notice one of the difficulty felt by the professionals while opting under composition scheme on 12-8-2017, the application form on GST portal was showing FY 2018-19, without any option for current FY 2017-18. When contacted to helpline number 0120-4888999, it was told that since the date has already lapsed, composition cannot be opted now for FY 2017-18. But when it was explained to him that the last date for opting for composition scheme has been extended to 16-8-2017, he told to discuss the problem with his seniors. In discussion with senior, he suggested to wait till 14-8-2017 as the difficulty is being removed and site is updated. He assured that otherwise the date will be extended. Though the problems continue and the composition scheme could not be applied. For these kind of cases, a suitable remedy be suggested at the earliest.
4) Utility of filling Tran-1 made available on GSTN portal on 21-8-2017.
As per rule 117 of CGST rules 2017 — suppliers who to avail carry forward of VAT / Excise / Service Tax / CVD / SAD need to file Tran — 1 by 28th Sep 2017 i.e. within 90 days of implementation of GST w.e.f. 1-7-2017. However, the utility of filling Tran-1 was made available on GSTN portal on 21-8-2017 i.e. 52 days late from 1-7-2017. Further, the last date of filling GSTR-3B for July was 28-8-2017. Hence, suppliers were provided only 7 days time i.e. from 21-8-2017 to 28-8-2017 to file Tran-1 and GSTR-3B which is a very short time to submit details required in Tran-1 and the same will result in errors in claiming carry forward of VAT / Excise / Service Tax etc while filling GSTR-3B.
It is accordingly requested that time for filling GSTR-3B and Tran-1 be extended by minimum 52 days for which Tran-1 utility was not available on GSTN portal. Please appreciate that this utility was required to be provided to be on 1-7-2017. For defaults of Government, the suppliers should not be made to suffer.
5) Clarification for claim of ITC through GST Trans-1.
There are cases that certain dealers have filed their returns in GSTR-3B form immediately on release of Form-3B but before the issuance of the notification no. 23/2017-CGST clarfying the filling of GST Tran-1 & GSTR-3B. There are also cases where certain dealers have filed their returns in form-3B without claiming ITC as GST Tran-1 is yet to be released. In view of statutory mandate that ITC has to flow from GST Trans-1 and due date for filling Trans-1 form is 90 days from appointed date, it is understood that claim of the dealers for ITC shall be made available in the month in which the GST Trans-1 is field. Accordingly kindly clarify the correct position of the law on ITC claim flowing from Trans-1 form where GSTR-3B forms have been field without waiting for GSTR Trans-1 form.
6) Resolving issues regarding compliances.
It is required from the dealers to provide information within a short time, moreover, this is the final stage of compliance and therefore mistakes are bound to occur, but GST portal is such that there is no provision for revision. Input matching is also not available as GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 forms are not yet made operational. Hence, it is requested to allow revision of form-3B, so as to match data with GSTR-1 and 2. This will avoid undue hardship to the dealers at large. It would be highly appreciated if it is notified that the teething problems faced by the dealers can be solved off line with concerned State / Central jurisdiction, as the same cannot be resolved on-line for initial few months.
7) ‘Amendment’ utility for ‘Core’ items in registration.
Registered suppliers who wish to change their registration particulars due to change of address, addition of godowns / place of business, change in constitution cannot file amendment application inspite of the fact as per GST law they are required to do the same within 30 days from the date of change.
Please appreciate that this has resulted lot of difficulties to many suppliers who cloud not do the corrections / amendments as utility is not available on GSTN portal again a lapes on the part of GSTN.
8) Filling of first appeal against resection orders on fresh registration applications.
The applications of the suppliers who applied for fresh registration under GST law due to business commencement after 1-7-2017 are rejected, in few cases. They cannot file the first appeal before the higher authorities as this utility not available on GSTN portal.
Since the appeal has to be field as quickly as possible the rejection orders as otherwise business of the supplier will be affected, either the suppliers be allowed to file such appeals manually as done in case of ‘LUT’ for exporters or the utility be immediately provided otherwise it will be a big hardship on such suppliers due to lapse on the part of GSTN.
9) Poor response of Email sent to GSTN or phone calls to help desk.
If a supplier finds out any difficulty in uploading information/data and contact the help desk, the person attending the calls gives only routine answer which are not of any help to suppliers/professionals and on asking to get in touch with some higher/responsible officers, it is told to go to nearby VAT / Excise / Service Tax office to get your issues resolved.
Further if any email is sent for the resolution of difficulties, the same are acknowledged by GSTN but no response is being provided for many days.
Most of the stakeholders are dependent on FAQs, handbooks and GOI Twitter for query resolution. It is amazing that contradictory clarifications are coming from GOI Twitter handle on the same issue. It is required to issue a clarification on the authenticity of such contents.
It is also required that some responsible / Knowledgeable persons should be deputed on help desks and E-mails be replied promptly.
Needless to mention here that GSTN portal is working comparatively more badly than the state VAT portals of the country and this being a centralised portal there is no person to listen the voice / difficulties of suppliers / professionals.
Due to above reasons, the work which cloud be done in 15 minutes, the same could not be completed in days by the professionals of the entire country which is resulting in National Wastage of time and energy of Tax payers / CA / Advocates / CS / CWA which are helping the suppliers to comply the GST law.
This is a very serious matter, and Government needs to take immediate action to solve the problems of suppliers to make GST successful in the country.
10) Payment through credit/debit cards without logging in/usage of OTP.
For ease of operations, it is requested that the payment option be enabled without using OTP as it is a usual practice that any person / professions pays the tax on behalf of entity / client who may not able to dedicated time and effort due to variety of business reasons and feasibility.
11) Filling of returns on quarterly basis instead of monthly.
Since GST law prescribed the payments of tax on monthly basis by 20th of next month, there is a fit case that filing of returns be made quarterly so that suppliers can devote their time and energy to carry on their business smoothly instead of getting busy throughout the year in returns on monthly basis. Since tax is being received on monthly basis, there will be no loss to the Government but will be an ease of compliance to suppliers for doing business.
12) Filing of form CMP-03 — details of stock up to 29-8-2017 but CMP-03 not available on GSTN
In case of Suppliers migrated from VAT regime w.e.f 1-7-2017 and have opted for composition need to file details of stock as on 30-6-2017 in form CMP-03 within 60 days i.e. by 28th August 2017. However, this form is not available on GSTN portal and the same therefore cannot be filed. No notification has been issued so far extension of the date and the professionals handling GST compliances of such suppliers are asking from one another as to what is the stats form. The Government should therefore clarify the position by issuing some press release / Notification.
13) URD supplies quantification while filling of monthly return.
It is practically difficult and compliance feasibility and effort is highly required to practically arrive at the line item of expenditure. This makes it mandatory for monthly accounting for even the unorganized sector will be quite telling for them to operate properly under law. Naturally when the turnover of the vendors is below the threshold level, it would have been ideal to have their PAN quoted / address quoted instead of subjecting them for reverse charge. The machinery provision is draconian enough for the small-scale sector and against their very subsistence especially when this community is a merit in itself as India has sustained the depression due to their self — sufficiency, this very base seeming to be hit inadvertently due to such provision.
14) Merchants Exporters Problems.
Earlier no tax was applied for any purchase done for export by merchant exporters. Now through GST they are suppose to pay tax on any purchase which is done for export & then to claim for refund. We feel that it is totally un-necessary as tax paid is to be refunded at some point of time, then why to pay tax? Their working capital is suffering due to this provision. So far LUT & Bond are concerned, there is no clarity & merchant exporters are not getting benefit of the scheme.
15) It is learnt that there is an enabling provision in the GST law, by which any state can impose any tax as entry tax or any other state specific tax. This is ridiculous & really damaging the main objective of GST.
16) So far reverse mechanism system is concerned, it is totally a waste of time & energy, when the initial purchase is made from farmers (Agricultural Products) it is a fruitless labour & additional administrative burden. Therefore, this provision should be removed at once.
