The Department of Commercial Tax has established help desks to facilitate traders’ migration from VAT to Goods and Services Tax (GST) by January 15.
K. Nagesh Rao, nodal officer and Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, VAT Division, Mysuru, said the window for registration for migration in Karnataka is January 1 to 15. This would ease the process of registration as there is a dedicated line and bandwidth, which would ensure that the process was completed within 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
The help desks had been established at all local VAT offices, sub-offices and divisional VAT offices of the division in coordination with FKCCI, KASSIA and other trade bodies. “Traders enrolling for migration at a later date will have to spend a day to what can essentially be completed within 30 minutes,” said Mr. Rao.
There are 52,389 traders in Mysuru division and 49,758 had downloaded the forms. But, only 11,122 traders had availed themselves of the facility as on Thursday. This is hardly 30 per cent of the traders in the four districts comprising Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, and Kodagu districts. However, this is expected to increase, according to officials. Bengaluru division is the highest in terms of enrolment for GST with 32 per cent compliance.
The dealers have been informed that the staff would work full-time on January 14 and 15. For assistance, call 0821-2420360 (Mysuru), 08232-220386 (Mandya), 08224-253209 (Chamarajanagar), and 08274-255003 (Madikeri).
