Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Hasmukh Adhia, the revenue secretary has said that the government needs to restructure GST rates for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). In his statement to PTI, Adhia stated that the burden of SMEs will reduce only when the government takes corrective measures to address the issues faced by SMEs. He, however, defended the government and said that a reform like GST needs some time to stabilise and hopefully by the mid of next year, things will be more settled.

GST (Goods & services tax) was implemented starting July 1st. It has done away with over tens of taxes to provide one tax form for the business. Initially, it claimed to have made the tax structure easy for everyone, especially small business. However, post the implementation, the small industries sector seemed worst affected by it. The tax structure and weird taxation rules and sanctions for SMEs have still kept the businessmen in doubt over a number of issues. The government did seem to realise the pain and announced a number of changes earlier this month, however, the analysts say that it needs to look into the matter with more details and suggest changes accordingly.

According to Hasmukh Adhia, the GST council needs to look into a number of factors to ensure a larger impact of the new decision. Also, any announcement needs a larger research on the part of the government and the finance ministry. According to the revenue secretary, the government is keen to implement the changes starting asap, however, it needs to be sure of a number of factors including the impact of revenue loss and limitations post making the changes. The GST council is set to meet for the 23rd meeting on November 10th and 11th in Guwahati.

Defending the government against the opposition on GST, he added that a new tax structure needs at least a year to stabilise and to make people familiar with it. Citing the example of the VAT, he added that VAT also faced a lot of criticism in its early days.

By Prithviraj Singh Chauhan

Part time journalist, full-time observer. Editor-in-Chief at The Indian Wire. I cover updates related to business and startups.