GST protests: CAIT to meet trade leaders tomorrow to discuss issues

Meeting will have discussions on GST effects, implications, access, roadblocks & challenges

Trade leaders from various states are meeting here tomorrow to take stock of the situation post implementation of the GST and chalk out future working plan.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has convened a day-long conference of prominent trade leaders belonging to different states.

The conference will have extensive rounds of discussions on the effects of the GST and its implications on the trading community, roadblocks and challenges and access to technology.

Traders will also formulate a working plan for the next six months for rolling out a national campaign on the GST.

Besides, to encourage more people to adopt digital technology, CAIT has suggested to the government to either exempt the accounting software from the GST for some specified period or bring the same under a lower tax slab.

Currently, the accounting software is placed under 18 per cent tax rate.

Feedback received by CAIT from different parts of the country has revealed that during the last five days of the roll out of GST, the demand for computer hardware has increased 2 per cent while at the same time, the demand for accounting software has also increased up to 50 per cent in comparison to the last month.

About 40 per cent of this demand comes from metro and big cities whereas the remaining 60 per cent is from small towns.

The CAIT has maintained that nearly 60 per cent of small businesses in the country particularly in tier2 and tier3 cities are yet to computerise their existing business format whereas GST is entirely based on e-compliance having four verticals e-tax, e-return, e-audit & e-assessment.

Whether paying tax, or filing return, everything has to be routed through digital technology under GST, hence there is already a persistent demand for computer systems and accounting software in the market.