New Delhi: Expressing grave concerns over burgeoning consumer grievances especially related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked officials to focus on complaints related to the newly introduced taxation system. This has come in the aftermath of GST collections falling to Rs 83,346 crore in October this year, after having recorded collections of more than Rs 90,000 crore in each of the first three months of its implementation since July 1, 2017.
In a recent meeting with top officials of central departments, Mr Modi said that efforts should be made to introduce systematic changes to minimise people’s grouses related to various issues, and mainly GST.
Highly-placed sources informed that several complaints are learnt to have been received by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) related to implementation of the new taxation regime. In fact there have been reports that owing to the complexities involved in the registration process under the GST network (GSTN), several small business persons are said to have failed to complete the procedure, thus resulting in a dip in GST collections.
Mr Modi, sources said, is learnt to have directed the Finance Ministry officials to analyse the grievances in terms of their nature and process, and take necessary steps for their faster resolution.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister emphasised on the need for sensitising officials involved in the entire GST registration exercise as well as in other public services towards greater usage of technology, as this will help in increasing overall efficiency in redressing grievances.
Earlier this week, the Finance Ministry had released the figures for GST collections for the month of October 2017. In a statement, it had said that the dip in the October collections compared to higher collections of July, August and September, was due to detachment of state and central GST from the integrated GST (IGST).
