Nirmala Sitharaman Invited ICAI and MSME Reps to Fix the GST Filing Issues

In order to address the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in filing of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman has invited tax practitioners' association and representatives of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) representatives on Saturday to hear their concerns.

''This exercise, along with the different steps being suggested by the various internal committees of the department, aims to further simplify GST forms and make the filling process more user-friendly,'' said a tweet by Sitharaman's office.

Small businesses often complain about difficulties in filing the returns, which they say consumes a lot of time and requires detailed maintenance of accounts, which they are finding difficult to handle.

Reportedly, automated refund mechanism — through which payments are to be made in 60 days-had raised expectations of the money flowing back within a week as is the case with payments related to export of goods.

While GSTN and the government’s Public Financial Management System have joined hands to speed up refunds, the system is yet to stabilize as the two have to work in tandem.