GST will help customers know precise tax rate: Minister

the goan I network\\r\PANAJI\\r\\\r\Chaudhary was speaking during an interactive session between government functionaries and members of the trade in Panaji on Friday. \\r\He said, “Thanks to GST, consumers will easily know applicable tax rate for a product. For example, a consumer will know that marbles are taxed at 28% under GST. This wasn’t possible earlier because there were so many taxes.” \\r\In the previous regime, there were many taxes like VAT, excise duty, octroi and central sales tax, which could even make an expert unsure as to what was the final tax burden on a product. \\r\The event also saw the presence of Dipak M Bandekar (commissioner of state government GST), K Anpazhakan (commissioner of central government GST), Atrey Sawant (chairman, CII Goa Council, Manguirish Pai \\r\Raiker (MSME board member) and Jack Sukhija (member, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa). \\r\Sukhija highlighted some teething issues that the tourism industry is facing. \\r\He said, “Under GST, tax is on declared tariff, which goes against the spirit of the tax. The idea of GST is to have a tax on transaction value. We urge the government to look into this issue.” \\r\Anpazhakan said, “Earlier, there was a central sales tax (CST) for transportation of goods across states. Due to this, companies had to set up warehouses in all states to avoid CST, which added to their cost. \\r\Under GST regime, this will not be required, which means companies will save cost,” he said adding that the overall administrative cost of companies will come down by 4-5% thanks to GST. \\r\\\r\Awareness among consumers on GST \\r\MARGAO: At a meet organised to impart information about GST, officials decided to create awareness among consumers about this concept. \\r\The meet, where the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Manish Gupta, was also present, decided to also strengthen the awareness drive to acclimatise the consumers about GST. \\r\At the meet, Roland Martins of GOACAN, demanded that apart from creating awareness about GST, the officials must also receive feedback from consumers and interested parties as well as accept suggestions from them. Martins said that consumer awareness is the major part of this exercise. \\r\To acclimatise officials about GST, Martins informed that he has written to the Commercial Officer of the Department of Commercial Taxes to conduct two training programmes --- one each in North and South Goa --- for Civil Supplies Inspectors \\r\Speaking at the meet, Gupta said the need of the hour is to create uniform system for everybody.