Industry experts keeping a hopeful eye on GST

MESSE FRANKFURT with the support of Home Textile Association hosted a GST seminar at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The seminar saw industry experts who shared views on the impact and preparedness of GST.

Advocate Bhanu Lamba moderated the session. He started by saying, “GST will be more beneficial to the organised sector rather than the unorganised sector.” Bimal Jain, Chairman of Indirect Tax Committee of PHD Chambers of Commerce gave his expert comment on the current GST scenario, “GST will bring the two per cent increment in GDP growth. We are moving towards the biggest indirect tax reform since independence.”

Speaking more about the benefits of GST, Jain illustrated, “After the commencement of GST, 17 indirect taxes will merge into one basket being the biggest advantage. India is struggling with the cascading tax structure, which will also be removed. The most important advantage will be one nation one tax. Businessmen are now not required to open multi warehouses, which will ultimately save the cost.”

Sharad Kohli, Founder of KCC Group, stated, “The GST council could not agree on the E-Way bill, which will cause a little hindrance. The E-Way bill is a digital document which was supposed to take care of the movement of goods from one state to another. Since the Finance Minister has announced that the old rules of transit will be continued, the clarity on the physical movement of goods will remain in the grey area.”

The discussion was led by numerous queries. Sanjay Goyal, President of HPMF, north chapter attended the session. On asking about his views on GST impacting the purchase sector, he said, “July will be a chaotic situation and I am advising my clients to get prepared for some hustle. For us the integration of technology is the biggest challenge as the SAP (Systems Applications and Products) and the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) has to be linked with the GST system.” For Goyal, the new GST regime will bring a positive impact globally. Adding to this he said, “In terms of financial impact I don’t see it in a huge bracket. Over a period of time, it will eventually ease out all the operations. For the FMCG companies, GST will simplify the process of moving products across the border.”