Agrofood chamber seeks new govt at Centre to prioritise reforms in GST Act

MADURAI: Agro Food Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AFCCI), Madurai expressed hope that the new government to be formed at the Centre would give priority to the second-generation reforms in GST Act and Rules to meet the needs of different sectors of the general public.

Despite several representations by various trade bodies including AFCCI across India, the central government did not come forward to alleviate legitimate concerns of the trade due to the highly complicated and confused implementation of GST. It was said that the GST was introduced to do away with ‘tax terrorism’, but GST by itself has become a terrorising factor, troubling traders, especially in the MSME sector.

This is the only taxation Act wherein compliance cost is prohibitive. “The havoc that is being created by GST could be understood by the fact that for the first time, the taxation system (GST) was a subject in the election manifesto of most of the parties,” S Rethinavelu, president, AFCCI, Madurai said on Wednesday.

Under the single-party rule, most of the time, priority is given to the states, which are also under the same party rule, and step-motherly treatment is meted out to opposition-ruled states. “Even need-based infrastructure was denied or very much delayed in implementation, like upgrading the status of Madurai airport as ‘international’ and construction of AIIMS Hospital,” he said.

While giving priority to the growth of very big corporate sectors, the interest of micro and small units, which contribute 40% of employment, was not taken care of. “For all such grievances, tangible solutions were not provided and consequently, the stakeholders were greatly affected,” he said.