GST rollout leaves Delhi traders anxious

New Delhi: Hours before the rollout of the GST, small shopkeepers and traders in the national capital are anxious over the maze of rules of the new tax regime that will come into effect from Saturday.

Many complain that the government has failed to address their apprehensions about the complexity of the new provisions. They cite confusion, especially among the retail businesses, on various rules and fear that the GST launch will be a disruption to their lives.

Mr Sanjiv Mehra, owner of four toy shops in Delhi’s Khan Market, has already begun winding up one of them as he thinks the new tax system is complicated and will cause him a harrowing time after the GST rollout.

“According to the new rules, even if I pay tax to the vendor while purchasing, the responsibility falls on me to keep checking if the vendor has submitted the tax. Non-submissions will affect my credit rating. Why should it be my business to police the vendors,” Mr Mehra said.

Traders feel that different tax slabs for different articles of the same commodity is also a problem. A common complaint by the small shopkeepers is that they don’t have the adequate infrastructure to be GST compliant. “I still haven’t understood the clauses completely,” another shopkeeper said.