Many consumers have raised complaints due to misinformation on Goods and Services Tax in social media, according to V. Pandiraja, Joint Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax and Central Excise.
Addressing a consumer awareness meeting here on Tuesday, he said most of the complaints were in the hotel and construction industries. “In case of a non-air-conditioned restaurant, the tax ought to have dropped by 2%. However, consumers have not got the benefit. We are monitoring the reasons,” he said. Earlier, the Central government did not tax such restaurants. The State government levied 14.5% Value Added Tax on food served in these restaurants. The current GST levied on customers is 12%,” he said.
Mr. Pandiraja said that prominent focus had been provided to Section 171 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, anti-profiteering rules.
The Central and State governments had issued a notification to set up an anti-profiteering agency in Madurai soon.
R. Karnan, president, Tamil Nadu Citizen Consumer Protection Centre, said that the ink used in most bills often faded.
He said that many furniture shops often resorted to providing ‘estimates’ or hand-written bills in order to evade tax. “The customer faces a problem,” he said. “We are left wondering if bills are fake because there is no mandatory GST number. Only estimates and quotations are given at furniture shops,” said S. Arunkumar, advocate and president of the Consumer Rights Protection Consortium.
A few petitions on levy of GST were submitted to the Joint Commissioner at the meeting.
