Kerala government seeks to check GST fraud

Thiruvananthapuram: The cabinet on Wednesday decided to press the GST council to put  in place stringent mechanism to counter the excess profit being made by traders in the garb of GST.

The traders are reaping in profits by taking advantage of the lack of clarity and absence of an effective software.

A private establishment, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN),  has been entrusted with the task of creating software to facilitate the payment of taxes by traders. In view of this,  the state government has limitation in intervening in the matter.  The GSTN should find a solution to the complaints being filed by traders, the cabinet said.

The state will ask the  GST council meeting to impose  fines  on traders for delay in filing returns as the software system is still incomplete. The tax on certain commodities has been posing problems to  the poor and  affecting economic growth. Such taxes should be made logical.

The government will demand  that a technical expert from Infosys should be deputed to Kerala in view of the persisting problems related to software.  The cabinet decided to take steps for resolving the complaints of traders in the state.

The district facilitation centres through which doubts and fears of traders are allayed would be strengthened further. Akshaya centres will function to resolve the complaints of GST payers. Facilities will be made in 180 tax circles to help traders register their complaints.

The GST department will also create free accounting software to help traders  file their returns. The cabinet noted that though GST came into effect three months ago, the problems persisted and the traders and consumers are facing huge problems.