FM holds first of a series of meetings with CAs, traders on simplifying GST

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday held meeting with chartered accountants, traders and other stakeholders as part of efforts to further simplify Goods and Services Tax (GST) forms and make the filling process more user friendly.

To highlight the problems faced by GST filers, the stakeholders attempted to file specific returns on a real-time basis in the meeting and tried to show where they are facing difficulties.

The finance minister assured the stakeholders that their suggestions on simplification of GST filing will be implemented soon, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said after the meeting in New Delhi.

The minister also suggested to hold similar exercises in the entire country next month to understand the issues and concerns of GST filers, the secretary further said.

"Commissioner of a circle will call in some of assesses who will file in return and give suggestions. It was also decided that the GSTN and CBIC will interact regularly after December 7 as this is evolving system and this kind of interaction are required for further improvement of the system," he said.

New GST return is available on the portal for trial and consultations will be held all across the country on December 7 to get feedback on the new system, he said, adding about 85,000 returns on voluntary basis have been filed so far although the new form becomes mandatory from April 1, 2020.

As a part of the ongoing efforts to address concern raised on the process of filling GST forms, the finance minister invited Rajasthan Tax Consultants' Association, ICAI, CAIT and Laghu Udyog Bharti and they attempted to file specific returns on a real time basis and tried to present where they are having difficulties.

Some of the suggestions were with regard to change or amendment to entries in the filing, credit and debit note, he said.

"This meeting was fruitful. In some cases they were not aware of the existing instructions, in some cases they pointed out to confusion and some suggestion with regard to further easing were made," he said, adding that some clarificatory circular would be issued wherever required and other suggestions would be implemented.

No major issues were found in basic filing of return, he said.

CBIC Chairman, GSTN CEO, Member (Tax Policy), CBIC, AS (Revenue), Joint Secretary (Revenue), JS (TRU-1) and EVP- GSTN were also present in the meeting.