GST is not the biggest Tax Reform but an Economic Reform for the nation opening opportunities for different sectors of the industries in India, said Mr Deepankar Aron, Commissioner, CGST, Dehradun, while speaking as Chief Guest at an interactive session organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Uttarakhand to mark the five years of GST reform. Mr Aron expressed that tax to GDP ratio needs to rise from 16 to 20% and this can help nation achieve a 10 trillion-dollar economy by 2025. He expressed that the biggest challenge of change from origin Based Tax to consumption Based Tax was beautifully addressed by the concept of IGST.
Ms Sonia Garg, Chairperson, CII Uttarakhand State Council & CEO, Forace Industries in her welcome remarks mentioned that a country’s taxation environment must be conducive for industry to achieve efficiencies that will enable them to be globally competitive.
Governments agility & business friendly approach in introducing GST & its implementation has been highly commendable, said Mr Hemant K. Arora, Past Chairman, CII Uttarakhand & Managing Partner Hemant Arora & Co. He suggested that filing of the GST returns should be more simplified.
Mr Harshit Gupta, Chair YI Dehradun & Partner, N. Kumar Gupta & Associates shared that being a complex country with the richest and the poorest people in the world, requested tax department to be generous with the society. He opined that State loses lots of revenue since consumption is less in Uttarakhand.
Mr Sumit Agarwal, Finance Manager, ITC Limited, Haridwar stated GST as “Good & Simple Tax”. He also highlighted multiple advantages of GST in past five years and requested for setting up of GST tribunal in the State.
Participants from various Industries raised many queries, which were well addressed. The session was attended by over 40 participants from industry and finance fraternity.
