GST has troubled traders; need to extend relief, says Kejriwal

New Delhi: Seeking some relief for the traders, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday asserted that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has caused a lot of trouble to them.

"Demonetisation and GST have adversely affected the interests of traders resulting that most of them have shut down their business, which has further directly affected the employment," he said at government's GST Market Committees Interactive Session.

The main issues raised by the GST support committees at the session were problems faced by them in filing of returns, dual structure (monthly and quarterly) of filing of return which creates mismatch multiple slab of taxes, multi structure of taxes, high rate of taxes on common used items viz chocolate, toys etc, RCM provision for job workers, and blocking of huge capital due to non-processing of timely refund.

"More than 40-50 percent small ventures and industries have been shut down in industrial areas of Delhi, which has shaken the economy as thousands of youth working in those ventures became jobless," said Kejriwal.

"To avail employment to the youth, we have to provide tax relief to the traders," he said.

He suggested that government should fix the GST as 12 per cent on all the commodities, with 6 per cent of this resting with the central Government and 6 per cent be given to state governments for carrying out developmental activities.

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Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the traders are on ventilators due to the ill effects of the GST levy.

He said that regular interaction with traders is must.

"IGST should be abolished, duplicacy of account should be stopped and the filing of quarterly return be made mandatory," he said.

"I will raise these issues in the GST council in the next meeting specially regarding quarterly return for all, feasibility of releasing of refund on the basis of GSTR 3B, to remove tax bracket of 28 per cent, RCM related issue for job worker," added Sisodia, who holds the Finance portfolio too.