After the introduction of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) in 2017, the taxes for many goods had come down, said Director General (Directorate, Taxpayer Services, New Delhi) Mahesh Kumar Rustagi here on Friday.
Inaugurating a GST outreach programme for MSME sector, organised by the Directorate General of Taxpayer Services, Commercial Taxes Department of Tamil Nadu and Confederation of Indian Industry (Madurai), he said taxes on many commodities such as household goods had been reduced, which was not the case earlier, where the people had to pay different taxes.
The Union government, he said, had a plenty of schemes offered for the tax payers. With the objective of helping the consumers, all the tiers in the government — Central, State and the local body — are unified to reach out to the masses.
The DG said Tamil Nadu had made good efforts to come in contact with tax payers. Trade facilitation committee meetings were being held in all the eight Commissionerates, including Madurai.
He appealed to the tax payers to engage in social media such as X, Facebook, YouTube and others where there were videos available on the GST and other services.
Mr. Rustagi said the officials would reciprocate to suggestions/complaints on the social media platform ‘cbic_india (central board of indirect taxes and customs)‘.
Assuring that the administration was here to solve the issues faced by the tax payers, Mr. Rustagi said they could voice their concerns and look for a swift action.
Principal Additional Director General (Directorate of Taxpayer Services, Chennai) Neerav Kumar Mallick said the Centre accorded top priority to the MSMEs. Tamil Nadu had 10% of the country’s MSMEs.
Appealing to the trade and industry to work in tandem, he said many of the decisions of the government taken from time to time had not been disseminated to the tax payers. Admitting that there were compliance issues and friction, he said there were solutions.
CII (Madurai) vice-chairman said 12 major associations from the trade and industry from Tiruchi, Thoothukudi and other cities were participating in the outreach programme. He said there was a need for the MSMEs to adapt new technologies.
In his welcome address, Central GST Commissioner (Madurai) Anwar Ali said they had been playing the role of a catalyst and helping the trade and industry in solving their grievances. There was a robust growth, he said, adding that the economic activity was growing at 15% in the region.
Agri & All Trade Chamber president, Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president N. Jagadeesan and entrepreneurs from many southern districts participated. Agri and All Trade Chamber Assistant Director (National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics) R. Srivatsan presented an overview on the MSME.
Joint Commissioner SGST Geetha Bharathy and others interacted with the participants. An exporter, Tirupathi Rajan, said instead of posting information on various social media, the government could upload all the features and activities on the website.
Jayaraman, who represented Tamil Nadu Motor Parts Association, said the GST officials should not detain vehicles carrying goods on a false pretext as it not only delayed in reaching the goods to the customers on time, but also led to a friction between the officials and the tax payers.
An entrepreneur, Rajkumar, said though he posted queries in the official handle, there was no response from the officials.
