MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has brought to the attention of Central government and to the GST Council about the dissatisfaction of trade and industry for having failed to find solutions to the demands of trade and industry at the 43rd GST Council meeting held on 28th May 2021.
In a press statement issued from Madurai today (on 30th May 2021), TN Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mr.N.Jegatheesan has strongly expressed the dissatisfaction and disappointment by stating that “it was shocking that no demand has been met at the GST Council meeting held on 28th May via videoconferencing after a gap of about eight months”.
“The trade and industry has highly anticipated abolition of 5 per cent GST on corona vaccines, abolition of 12 per cent tax on COVID related equipment, oxygen concentrator, oxygen generator, inclusion of petroleum products under GST, tax exemption for essential food products used daily by people with trademarks, GST classification issues and various other matters faced by the trade and industry. We thought that our issues will be discussed at this GST Council meeting and solutions will be found. But, it was shocking that no demand has been met at this meeting,” chamber president Mr.N.Jegatheesan has stated in his important press statement on 30th May 2021.
Stating that the amnesty scheme announced by Union Finance Minister on waiver / reduction of late fees for GST returns filing will help the trade and industry to some extent, he observed that “it is in no way acceptable for the GST Council to act on its own with making any consultations/ discussions with representatives from all sectors before the GST council meeting. The legitimate demands and practical problems of trade and industry should be considered because government gets revenue from trade and industry”.
The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce president Mr.N.Jegatheesan had further stated that in an extraordinary situation like COVID pandemic, the expectation of all sections is that the Centre should think only of the single goal of achieving the objective without leaving room for political considerations.
