FICCI Telangana State Council Chairman Devendra Surana on Thursday underscored the significance of the government implementing the Goods and Services Tax as scheduled on July 1.
“Trade is not ready, but it will never be until the GST is fully implemented,” he said, adding that the level of readiness was not going to improve if the indirect tax regime roll out was postponed.
Partner-Indirect Tax of KPMG Santosh Dalvi added that gearing up for GST was not a choice but a need for trade and industry.
Mr. Surana and Mr. Dalvi, who were speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of an interactive session on GST organised here by FICCI and KPMG, said the level of preparedness, however, was not bad with 99% of the trade and industry expected to be ready by July 1. Smaller units and traders would be less ready, the FICCI State head said.
Apart from conducting seminars on GST to discuss topical issues such as transitional credit, documentation requirement, the KPMG, in association with HP, launched a scheme for providing laptops with GST solutions to small traders. The laptop, to be made available for a monthly charge of ₹1,800-2,000 for the first two years, would help the traders with the invoicing and filing returns.
On possible disruption in supplies as the GST implementation date approaches, Mr. Surana said, “We are expecting a reduction in inventory across the country in all the products which have long delivery chain.” Destocking, in case of several products, was already happening since May. The loss of sale, however, was expected to be more than compensated in July when the GST is rolled out. “We will see an early Diwali as there will be a huge demand in July,” he added. Revenue Secretary Somesh Kumar and Chief Commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax, Hyderabad Zone, Sandeep M. Bhatnagar addressed the seminar.
