Tura, Nov 17: In a first for the Garo Hills region, an interactive session of central – GST was held in the town of Tura this morning. The event was organized by C-GST Commissionerate – Shillong.
The meeting which began at 11 AM today in Hotel Rikman Continental, saw the presence of over 100 traders and tax payers who came to listen to the C-GST higher ups of the state as well as ask questions on what has ailed them in filing taxes.
The meeting was attended by the Commissioner of the Meghalaya, H Soikanthang, deputy commissioner Pauzakhan Ngainte , assistant commissioner Nani Gopal Dey along with resource persons from the Shillong Commissionerate, Debashish Modak and the C-GST superintendent for Williamnagar and Tura, Shankar Burman.
Assistant commissioner, Dey was the first on the dais and welcomed all to the meeting.
Next came Debashish Modak, who through a presentation explained the system of filing their taxes to those that came to the interaction. Traders from across Garo Hills came to the interaction to understand taxation under GST system.
Good and Sales Tax (GST) was begun the year 2017 under the leadership prime minister, Narendra Modi. Its implementation has led to widespread change in the system of taxation. While there were a lot of questions while the system was being laid, the GST council which looks into required changes has met a total of 49 times to review and make changes as necessary, to make the system more user friendly.
As was explained by the organizers, the objective of the meeting was to make taxpayers familiar with the system as well as seek to increase the reach for businesses.
“The slogan of GST is ‘One Nation, One Tax, One Market’. Paying taxes helps to build the nation and your paying taxes is helping. We are here to help you understand the system so that paying taxes becomes hassle free. It is an evolving system and with time we hope all complaints raised by you will be resolved,” informed the organizers.
Various questions raised by traders in Garo Hills were answered by subject experts from the department in an interactive session that followed the presentation.
“There is huge potential in Garo Hills which has seen a 60% year on increase in taxes under C-GST. We encourage you to regularly pay taxes so that our nation can grow,” said commissioner H Soikanthang while speaking to the gathering.
Deputy commissioner Pauzakhan Ngainte provided words of encouragement to the gathering and hoped more such sessions would take place to make the system familiar with traders and trading.
A vote of thanks was made by C-GST superintendent, Shankar Burman to conclude the meeting.