Development Commissioner Handicrafts Ministry of Textile, Government of India Shantmanu who is head of Goods and Services Tax (GST) monitoring unit comprising four districts of Jammu, Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur, chaired a meeting of heads of the concerned districts and discussed the issues with regard to successful implementation of the new tax regime in the areas of their jurisdiction.The meeting was attended by a team of district administration Jammu led by Deputy Commissioner, Rajiv Ranjan, while DCs of Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur attended through video conference.It is pertinent to mention here that Government of India has created a number of monitoring units, each headed by Additional/ Joint Secretaries in the Government of India overseeing upto 4 districts.Each Additional/Joint Secretary will be assisted by an officer of the Central Board of Excise and Customs. The Additional/ Joint Secretary will have the latitude of co-opting other Central and State Government officials for better discharge of their responsibility. They will interact on a regular basis with the State Commercial Tax Official and District administrations to better understand the prevailing situation with regard to GST implementation.
Speaking at the meeting, Shantmanu said that the government has laid special stress on addressing the problem of lack of understanding and awareness about GST and it implementation problems.“These need to be proactively addressed to ensure smooth roll out of GST. For best results, there needs to be a monitoring mechanism for all the districts in the country, as GST impacts trade and business community and consumers across the length and breadth of the country” he said.Mr Shantmanu directed the Deputy Commissioners of concerned districts to immediately constitute team of 5 to 7 members to monitor and get feedback on all issues concerning implementation of GST. “The team headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner will have senior officers and two locals as members” he saidHe said there is imminent need for expediting the shifting from existing Central Excise/Service Tax/VAT Taxpayer, registration of new taxpayers, prompting issuance of GST registration certificate, uploading of applications and other information on GSTN website. He said lack of information gap in this regard needs to be addressed urgently. Underlining other implications, he said there is need to get regular feedback on the impact of GST on prices of items of mass consumption and whether consumers are facing any problems, whether benefits of duty reduction/ increased credit availability is being passed on to consumers and any other issue.