The Commercial Taxes Department in Coimbatore has assured the micro and small-scale industries that there will not be any “harassment” to the industries for e-way bills or in reimbursing the dues.
The Department held a meeting with the office bearers of the micro unit associations recently to learn about their grievances. “The officials have shared numbers and asked us to contact them if there are issues during transport of goods or in getting reimbursement of some of the payments made,” said coordinator for the Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Associations.
During the last one year, several assessees have received notices for penalties related to ITC discrepancies, delayed filing of returns, or HSN code, under the SGST Act. Many of these notices are for the Value Added Tax period (before 2017) and are just posted on the portal. Similarly, even if there are minor errors in e-way bills, the roving squads stop the vehicles and demand heavy penalties.
The Federation said that the first five years of the GST regime should be treated as amnesty period and there should not be any penalty for errors committed during that period. The notices should be served as hard copies to the industries as most of the micro and small-scale industries file returns through tax consultants.
According to the Chinnavedampatti Industrial Association, such SGST consultative meetings should be held at regular intervals and the accounts of companies should be verified within three years and NOC should be issued for the same.
Micro enterprises with annual turnover of less than ₹1 crore should be classified as a separate category and steps should be taken to resolve their accounts and grievances quickly.
