State GST grievance cell dormant, plaints swell

The state grievance redressal committee (GRC), which is meant to address GST taxation hurdles, has failed to meet since July 2021, leaving several complaints and grievances pending for over two years, said the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

GCCI president has written to the GST authorities and industries minister Mauvin Godinho for a meeting of the Grievance Redressal Committee to be convened immediately.

Godinho is Goa’s representative on the GST Council.

“Currently the stakeholders do not have any forum to voice the practical GST issues jointly with the CGST and SGST offices. The GRC forum is a bridge between the stakeholders and the CGST and SGST offices, and the everchanging requirements of the GST statute and the frequent updates to the GST portal make it imperative that periodic meetings are held between the trade associations and the GST offices for the ease of compliance and quick resolution of grievances,” he said.

The fourth meeting of the GRC was held on July 20, 2021, and the fifth meeting was supposed to be held on October 14, 2022, but was deferred indefinitely.

“While the meetings were to be held once every quarter or more frequently as decided by the co-chairs of the committee, there has been no GST meeting held since July 2021,” said the GCCI president.

He has written to the chief commissioner for central GST & customs, Pune zone, and to the commissioner of central GST, Goa. The GCCI is part of the GRC in Goa.

He said that in the past, the GRC meetings helped resolve various practical challenges faced by the taxpayers and also resulted in the resolution of grievances pertaining to procedural difficulties and IT related issues.

“As considerable time has elapsed since the last meeting, the GCCI requested that in the interest of the stakeholders, the GST- grievance redressal committee be revived, and the next committee meeting be held at the earliest,” he said.

The GST council in 2019-20 decided that a structured grievance redressal mechanism should be established for the taxpayers under the GST to tackle GST related issues and had thus approved the constitution of ‘Grievance Redressal Committee’ at the state level.

Source from: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/state-gst-grievance-cell-dormant-plaints-swell/articleshow/106239438.cms