The maximum retail price (MRP) of goods for which taxation structure has been changed after the GST council meeting on November 10 will have to be clearly indicated to the consumer, said Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and head of the panel constituted to resolve the technology glitches faced by traders on the network.
Mr. Modi, who was in the city for a meeting, said that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs had already stated that the old goods should have two stickers of the pricing — pre-GST price and revised MRP — for old stocks. He also said that people have the right to know what the rates of these commodities were prior to November 15 and after November 15.
The GST council on November 10 had decided to reduce GST for 178 items from 28 % to 18%. The changes came into effect from November 15.
“I would like to appeal to all manufacturers, dealers and wholesalers to ensure that the decisions taken in the GST council are passed on to the consumers. If not, the states are competent enough to take measures against them,” he said.
Referring to the reduction in the GST rate for hotels, Mr. Modi said that consumers could approach the screening committee of the states with a petition in cases of violation. “The committee will examine it and refer the case to the National Anti-Profiteering Authority which will initiate action,” he said.
Explaining that things were slowly stabilising, Mr. Modi said that the revenue receipts in September was ₹93,141 crore which increased to ₹95,131 crore. He also said that the average revenue shortfall reduced from ₹12,208 crore to ₹7,560 crore in October. The percentage of revenue shortfall reduced from 28.4% in August to 17.6% in October.
He also said that 621 verified and competent engineers from Infosys were deployed to look into issues pertaining to the GST network, which he termed the backbone of GST. Based on feedback, they were planning to make it more user-friendly, he added. He said that resident engineers were deployed in 30 states and more would be deployed in the remaining states. He said that while there was a reduction in the number of complaints, there was still “miles to go.”
Mr. Modi also said that an editing option for the GSTR form 3B would be made available by November 21.
