Union Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha, along with secretaries of 30 central ministries, on Tuesday took stock of readiness for the launch of the GST regime from July 1, an official said.
According to a Finance Ministry release here, besides secretaries connected with the Goods and Services Tax (GST), representatives of 167 public sector undertakings (PSUs) joined the meeting through video conferencing.
"The focus of the review was on the progress made by PSUs in getting GST-ready and preparation in their IT system as well," it said.
"The Cabinet Secretary expressed his satisfaction over the preparedness of different ministries and PSUs but asked them to leave no stone unturned for its effective and smooth implementation by educating and involving all stakeholders concerned," it said.
Sinha asked "all involved to take full responsibility of their stakeholders and for the successful implementation of the GST," it added.
Other aspects discussed included the arrangements made by the departments for opening the GST facilitation cell and a call centre to guide client groups and vendors.
The Cabinet Secretary also asked the secretaries to organise outreach meetings and publicity campaigns through their departments and PSUs for explaining the provisions of new law and rules to their stakeholders.
The GST Council on Sunday unanimously agreed on a July 1 rollout of the new pan-India indirect tax regime despite some pending issues, while relaxing the return filing deadline for the first two months.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters here after the meeting that the Council has allowed businesses a relaxation of time for the first two months (July-August) for filing their returns. These would also need to submit only a simple declaration initially, and would have time to furnish the exact "invoice-by-invoice data" later.
--IANS
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