Delhi Assembly passes GST Amendment Bill to smoothen tax filing process

The Delhi Assembly on Friday passed the 'Delhi Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2021' to smoothen the GST filing process and to prevent tax evasion, amid opposition from the BJP over its introduction and passage on the same day.

Small changes have been made in 15 sections of the Delhi GST Act. These have been incorporated on the basis of experiences and feedback from traders, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said while introducing the bill on the second and last day of the monsoon session.

The amendments, he said, aim to smoothen the GST filing process and check fraud practices.

 

GST is a new law; it has come to our notice that some people took advantage of it and evaded tax. So, some amendments are aimed at plugging tax evasion, Sisodia said.

He said one of the amendments does away with the need for a mandatory audit and reconciliation of registered traders with a turnover of 1.5 crore and above.

Because of this, the traders had to depend on chartered accountants and company secretaries, he added.

As the bill was being introduced, BJP MLA Vijender Gupta objected to the government bringing the bill, discussing it and passing it the same day.

According to the rules, copies of the bill should be given to all members of the House two days in advance to study it. We did not get any hard copy, Gupta said.

To this, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said copies of the bill had been sent to all members on their mobile phones on Thursday evening.