GST yet to show positive effect in state

SHILLONG: The rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has not yielded a positive result in the state so far.
The Cabinet on Tuesday was updated about the revenue scenario in the state post GST implementation.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said most taxpayers who were trying to have access to the system for filing their returns were frustrated as the system was giving trouble to them.
Only 40 per cent of the traders have filed their returns due to the “incompetence and incapability of the system”, Sangma said.
The state government at the moment has not been able to assess the trend of filing of returns post GST as it is not getting returns from all the taxpayers. However, it expects that its growth rate under the new regime will be around 40-50 per cent as was the case in Value Added Tax (VAT) regime.
Meanwhile, the chief minister also slammed the Centre for not allowing the input tax credit for building infrastructure like hotels in the tourism sector whereas it has been allowed for all other infrastructure.
“This is something abnormal and it defeats the rhetoric of the government that it wants to promote nation as destination and investment in hospitality sector,” Sangma told reporters.
He assured that the matter would be taken up at the level of GST Council, besides he would also write to his counterparts on the matter.
It was also informed that there were 25,852 dealers registered under VAT in Meghalaya and out of them, the number of taxpayers registered under GST is 9,546. Besides, 5,752 new taxpayers have been registered under GST.