Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan has lauded the Goods and Services Tax regime introduced by the Central Government as a bold reform paving the way for ‘one country - one tax’ system, replacing multiplicity of taxes.
He said that the GST regime would have impact on three broad sections of population - the common man, traders and rich people - and the ultimate goal of happiness to all would depend on the success of the reform.
The Governor launched the first regional language version of the GST Rate Finder, a Telugu version of the mobile App for Android phones. The English version of the App was launched in July consequent on the introduction of the GST regime.
He said that the Telugu version of the GST Rate Finder was much needed tool and would be helpful for the common man. Acknowledging that there would be apprehensions whenever new reforms were introduced, he said that the new tax regime was aimed at providing advantage to the common man.
The GST experiment had commenced as a paradigm shift for the common man and it would take at least six months to one year for the new tax regime to settle down. With the implementation of the GST, traders who were outside the tax bracket were brought into the tax net. Broad basing of the tax net would ensure that more revenues were generated for the greater benefit of the country and greater devolution of funds to States.
The successful implementation of the ‘game-changing reform’ would ensure that the country joined the league of the economic super powers and this would in turn enhance the level of happiness of the people. The departments concerned should bring awareness among the people on the salient features the new system would offer them and how it would lead them from ignorance to knowledge.
The Central Excise Department officials in particular should have their feet on the ground and bring awareness among people and traders on the GST in line with the example of Amazon which launched the ‘foot in the village’ programme enabling people to place orders through online systems.
People could find a way to avoid paying taxes in the GST regime too and it was the responsibility of the department to plug loopholes in the system. “It is a tough job for the department particularly with the GST rates undergoing dynamic changes,” he said.
The GST and Customs Hyderabad zone Chief Commissioner Bankey Behari Agarwal, GST Principal Commissioner Naresh Penumaka, Governor’s principal secretary Harpreet Singh and other senior officials participated in the programme.
