Jammu, Jan 5: Maintaining that adoption of tax reforms was imperative to be in race with the world economy, the Minister for Finance & Ladakh Affairs   A.R. Rather today asked the Trade & Industry to be ready to switchover to new tax regime – the Goods & Services Tax, a latest tax reform being shortly implemented throughout the country, an official statement said.
 Speaking at an interactive session with the representatives of Trade and Industry, here today, Rather briefly outlined the history of tax reforms in India. He said that GST is not coming before the people all of a sudden but the spadework for this most progressive indirect tax reform was started immediately after the successful implementation of VAT in the country. Stressing on the advantages of GST over VAT   Rather explained that notwithstanding the success of VAT, certain shortcomings continue in this tax regime in the form of cascading effect due to inclusion of central taxes like Central Excise, Additional Custom Duty, Central Sales Tax and Service Tax etc. in its overall framework. He emphasized that GST at the Central and the State level will provide more relief to all the stakeholders, the trade, the industry and the consumer.
 Speaking about the first discussion paper on GST brought out by the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers,   Rather said that the document is not final but it is only a discussion paper that has been put in the public domain soliciting response from the stakeholders which could form the basis of discussion in the future meetings of the Empowered Committee.
 Giving an overview of the contents of the discussion paper, he explained that it is divided into four sections. The first section traces the process of introduction of VAT and indicates precisely the areas where there is scope for further improvement. The second section describes the process of preparation for GST, the third section presents the structure of GST model and the forth section enlists the frequently asked questions with their answers.
 Responding favorably to the suggestions and queries put-forth by the representatives of various trade and industry organizations, the Finance Minister said that their suggestions would be placed before the next meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers scheduled on 7th – 8th of this month adding that “our effort would be to see that without compromising on State’s revenue, the tax regime is in the larger interest of stakeholders and fulfills their aspirations.” 
 He said the government always wants cordial relationship with the trade and industry adding that every precaution would be taken that no harassment is caused to them. For this purpose, he said computerization of the Commercial Taxes Department is in the offing in which e-filing of returns, e-payment and de-matting of statutory forms would be the main features. This, he said would minimize the interface of the dealers with the Department. The Minister asked the concerned authorities to organize awareness and training programmes to acquaint the people as well as officials with this new tax regime i.e. Goods & Services Tax.
 Earlier speaking on the occasion, Bashir Ahmed Commissioner Commercial Taxes stated that globalization of economy world over has necessitated review of our indirect system which presently has a hybrid tax structure with a narrow base susceptible to evasion. In such a scenario he said shift from direct to indirect taxation is a fast developing reality and as a sequel Goods and Services Tax is emerging as tax of the future.
 The session was attended by representatives of various trade and industry associations of Jammu Division which include President, Chamber of Commerce & Industry   Y.V. Sharma, Chairman, CII J&K State Council   Sanjeevi Puri, President, Small Scale Industrial Association   Jatinder Aul, President Hoteliers Association   Inderjeet Khajuria and others. Besides the officers of the Commercial Taxes Department were also present.

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