Traders' body CAIT hails decisions of the GST Council

PUNE: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has expressed satisfaction on decisions of GST Council meeting held today and complimented finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allowing relaxation to traders having annual turnover upto Rs 2 crore from filing of annusl GST returns for last two years.
"It’s a proactive approach of the government which will bring relief to about Rs50 lakh traders across country," said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of CAIT.

Khandelwal however said that form of annual GST return is very complicated and needs to be simplified to the extent that even an ordinary trader in rural area can comply the form timely on his own. He also said that slashing GST rate on Hotels from 28% to 18% is a welcome step and not only prove to be a breather for small and budget hotels but will also help in making India a tourist hub.

Khandelwal said that several other procedures of GST also needs to be simplified and rationalised to make it a easy taxation system like revision of returns, quarter filing of returns instead on monthly basis.

He demanded that tax rate on auto spare parts , alluminum utensils and several other items needs to be brought down. "The basic fundamental tax on raw material should not be higher than finished products needs to be adopted," he said.