GST Stakeholder Feedback Diwas observed across country
The new return form will be made mandatory from April 1, 2020.
About 7,500 trade associations/stakeholders participated in the programme, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said in a statement.
"There has been an overwhelming response from GST stakeholders and several useful suggestions have been received. The programme was widely welcomed by GST stakeholders and tax professional/fraternity," it said.
Besides a large number of taxpayers, all prominent chambers of commerce and industry, tax practitioners and compliance managers also participated in the programme.
CBIC said the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) officers explained the new system of filing GST returns and encouraged the participants to upload these returns (ANX-1 and 2) and give feedback in regard to the ease of compliance, uploading, deficiencies and improvements.
The focus was on assessing the ease of compliance and uploading of these new returns so that the taxpayers and traders do not face any difficulty when the returns are made mandatory, it added.
Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had directed the CGST and SGST authorities to organise a nationwide interaction with stakeholders in order to get a first-hand feedback on the new GST returns that are proposed to be rolled out from the next fiscal year.
This was a follow up of the finance minister's meeting held on November 16 with select taxpayers, Chartered Accountants and tax practitioners on the same subject.
Further, during the first National Conference on GST held on November 25, Revenue Secretary had also urged the states GST authorities to hold similar stakeholder consultations in their jurisdictions. DP BAL