GST Help Centres To Help Taxpayers Tide Over Teething Troubles

New Delhi: Help is at hand for those who have questions about India's biggest tax reform since Independence, the Goods and Services Tax or GST. For the last six months, 34 GST Suvidha Kendras or help centres across the country, on a daily basis, are addressing questions on the new levy from taxpayers across the country.

The help centres were launched with the hope that with adequate information and some hand holding, the teething troubles after the launch could be solved.

All the details and guidelines related to GST are also available on www.gstn.org.

When the helplines were launched in January, the staff received just about 10 to 20 calls a day. Now, with a little over a week to go before the midnight launch of GST on June 30, the number of calls handled by the Suvidha Kendras has shot up to almost 100 calls a day And they are picking up some key concerns from the callers.

Sunil Kapoor, CFO of Spice Digital than runs GST Suvidha Kendra says there is no panic. "There is a fear of surprise from the authorities and problems with filing of returns. Some of these concerns will s will get addressed when the government comes up with administrative support when roll out happens,' he said.

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Despite the government advertising the GST on a large scale, some trader representatives are nervous. The Confederation Of All India Traders (CAIT), that represents six crore traders, is demanding a long period of leniency. "We have requested the government that for the first nine months, there should be a transition period where there is no penalty for procedural lapses," said CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal.

There are nine types of invoices and three returns that have to filed every month. The procedural compliance may seem somewhat daunting for small businesses.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced on Tuesday announced that the national tax will be formally launched at midnight on June 30. President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Manmohan Singh, HS Deve Gowda will be present during the rollout in the Central Hall of Parliament.