CAIT releases White Paper on GST, asks FM to lower rates

New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Traders body CAIT on Thursday urged the government to lower GST rates on various products, including auto parts and aluminium utensils.

It also suggested a review of items placed under different tax slabs under Goods and Services Tax (GST) as many of them are overlapping.

"Various items like auto parts, aluminium utensils etc. are not of luxurious nature (and) should be taken out from 28 per cent tax slab...," CAIT said in a statement.

The trade body submitted a White Paper on GST to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in which it emphasized the need to streamline the GST slabs and ensure that as a matter of policy, the tax rate on a raw material is not more than the tax rate for the finished goods.

Presenting the paper, CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal urged the Minister to simplify Form GSTR 9 and 9C as it demands various information which were not prescribed earlier and hence traders are unable to comply with the same.

He also said that as per original announcement, the non-banking finance companies and micro finance institutions should be roped into the Mudra scheme to lend to the ultimate beneficiary and banks should be asked to lend finance to NBFCs and MFIs.

While welcoming waiving-off of bank charges, Khandelwal suggested that in order to encourage adoption and acceptance of digital payments, the bank charges levied on card payments should be subsidised by the government directly to banks and neither the traders and nor the consumers should be charged any bank charges on card transactions.

The traders' body has also urged the Finance Minister to form GST Lokpal in each state and at the Centre so that a forum is provided to all traders to redress their concerns.

Welcoming the suggestion, Sitharaman assured the delegation that she will look into the issues raised by CAIT. The intention of the Government is certainly to simplify the tax procedure so that more and more people can easily comply with it, she said while urging traders to streamline their existing business format and comply with the law.

In its White Paper on GST, the CAIT has raised many issues including advance ruling, reverse charge mechanism, rectification of GST returns, that the liability of paying GST should be devolved on the seller only and no action should be taken against the buyer, clarification of jurisdiction of CGST & SGST, HSN code issues, abolition of Form ITC-04, and so on.

The CAIT has also urged a reduction in the tax rate from the current slab to the appropriate lower slab for items like hardware, mobile covers, food items, dry fruit, ice cream, food grains, malt/cereal-based health food drinks, paints, marble, used vehicles, two-wheelers, agricultural equipment, roasted chana, etc.