FM Sitharaman assures ‘simplified’ GST

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the government will resolve issues concerning traders and that GST would be further simplified.

Speking at the second day of the National Traders Convention of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), Sitharaman assured them that the government is making all attempts to simplify and rationalise the GST tax structure to the extent that even an ordinary trader can comply with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) provisions.

“Under the chairmanship of the Revenue Secretary, a committee has been constituted, which is working day and night to explore the ways and means to simplify GST”, she said.

Traders from across the country are attending the three-day convention.

Sitharaman lauded the role of the trading community for increasing the GST tax data.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the body has set itself a target of enhancing the number of traders registered under GST to 2 crore.

Sitharaman said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed the trading community as his priority and in line with this, various announcements have been made by the government to facilitate traders on growing their businesses.

The Finance Ministry is seized of the problems being faced by traders in the taxation system and the government would do its utmost for providing maximum relief to traders, she said.

According to Sitharaman, while traders bring in tax revenue earners and no prudent government would like to annoy them, they, however, also need to bring their businesses into system and modernise their existing business formats.

The government plans to hold big shopping festivals across the country and will involve CAIT so that traders may get more opportunities to showcase their products, she added.