JAMMU: A delegation of Traders Federation Ware House Nehru Market under the Presidentship of Deepak Gupta, President met Dr. Rashmi Singh, Commissioner, State Taxes, Jammu in her office.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the problems faced by traders of Jammu. During the meeting Deepak Gupta submitted a memorandum highlighting various problems and demands of the trading community.
In a memorandum, the federation said that due to few officers of the department, businessmen are facing a lot of difficulties. Raising the issue of unnecessary checking after Lakhanpur, Deepak Gupta said that Jammu and Kashmir is a UT, where up to 90 percent of food items come from other states. We import almost everything.
In such a situation, whatever goods come to us, we have already paid GST on them. Nevertheless, all the goods are checked in Lakhanpur. Now, when all the goods are checked in Lakhanpur, then what is the point of checking by putting nakas at various places? This is just to harass the traders. Our demand is that there should be only one check post after Lakhanpur to check goods transporting from Jammu to Kashmir.
Apart from this, there should be no check post or naka in Jammu. He said that the GST department needs to understand the geographical conditions of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir is not like Mumbai-Delhi. Sometimes it takes a whole week to cover the distance of 300 kilometers from Jammu to Srinagar.
The roads remain closed for several days. We generate e-way bills from here but vehicles get stuck on the way. Many times, we are unable to contact drivers and the e-way bill expires. Sometimes the vehicle breaks down on the way. Goods have to be shifted in another vehicle. If the e-way bill expires, we are heavily fined. If the vehicle number changes, we are fined. Instead of finding such minor technical flaws, the department should see whether GST has been paid on the goods being transported.
The department should see that there is no tax evasion, but instead of checking tax evasion, the department is imposing a fine to traders for minor technical mistakes, which is not right.
Demanding raising the limit of e-way bill, Deepak Gupta said that the e-way bill limit should be increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh. Six years ago this limit was kept at Rs 50 thousand and in these six years inflation has increased manifold and the prices of food items have almost doubled. In such a situation, the e-way bill limit should also be enhanced to two lakhs.
Demanding the release of FDs of the Vat regime, Gupta said that the department should immediately release the FDs of traders without any paperwork as the Vat period is already matured.
He also suggested that the trader community is not aware about the GST rules and there is a need to create awareness among them. He said that there is a need to train the users of the online system of the department.
Dr. Rashmi Singh appreciated the suggestions given by Deepak Gupta and said that all steps will be taken to create awareness and requested support and cooperation of traders.
Others who were present during this meeting was Munish Gupta, Sr. Vc. President, Abhimanyu Gupta, Vc. President, Amit Gupta, Cashier of Federation and Yashpal Gupta, President Retailers Federation
