SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma stated that the biggest challenge post the GST rollout is to aggressively sensitise taxpayers, dealers and traders about the Goods and Service Tax (GST).
“That is where we are lagging behind and efforts are on in this direction,” Sangma told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting here on Thursday.
Sangma said the departments of both the Union Government and the State Government are working in tandem to ensure that GST is implemented smoothly.
“In spite of constraints, we will try to face all challenges and ensure that there is minimum dislocation during the transition,” he said.
According to Sangma, the Centre had earlier decided not to wait further for GST implementation and this is the reason why states worked overtime to complete the process but they were not being able to have a seamless transition since there was lack of preparedness.
Asked if the check gates would be closed down following the new tax regime, the chief minister affirmed that everything required to be formatted as per the act will be done and effective mechanisms would be put in place.
Responding to a query about the compensation that Meghalaya will get for being a consuming state, he said compensation cannot be assumed but it has to be practical.
Sangma reiterated that it is now legally binding on the Union Government to compensate the State if there is any loss during the initial transition to GST.
“The losses, if any, will be decided by the GST Council,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Goods and Services Tax, India’s biggest tax reform in its 70-year history, on the midnight of June 30 as businesses and citizens across the country steeled themselves for the economic turmoil that was expected to follow.
First proposed in 2006, GST subsumes more than a dozen state and central levies into one tax, unifying 29 states and 1.28 billion people into a single market, single taxation for the first time.
It is expected to expand India’s narrow tax base and increase government revenues.
