Technical panel to answer queries related to GST

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 12

After drawing flak from several quarters on the poor infrastructure and problems being faced while filing Goods and Services Tax returns (GST), the Government of India (GOI) has finally appointed a committee of eight technical persons to answer various queries related to the new tax regime on Twitter/email.

Member of the Taxation Bar here have appreciated the move of the Centre government and hope that it will serve the purpose to an extent.

A local taxation lawyer Mohit Aggarwal said, “Due to large number of complaints regarding lack of information about the GST, the Finance Ministry has roped in eight officers, all Assistant Commissioners, to answer tax-related queries on Twitter/email with immediate effect.”

“These officers include Raj Karan Aggarwal, Rajni Sharma, Raunaq Jamil Ansari, Shantanu, Bullo Mamu, Heera Lal, Manish Chaudhry and Anshika Aggarwal. They will provide online solutions to the people facing problems with the GST,” he added. “This will serve purpose to some extent as the people have started asking questions on Twitter,” he said.

Another Taxation Lawyer, Arun Kanwal, said, “People are continuously asking several questions concerning filing of the GST on twitter from all-over India since yesterday. Though there is no rule that answers will be provided within limited time, still people are hopeful to get many queries solved by technical persons.”

“We, as taxation lawyers have formed a group on WhatsApp to answer queries. Now, we will also try to get answers from technical/capable persons, who will satisfy us with more accuracy,” he added.

Meanwhile, the government is also discussing the implementation of the E-way bill by the end of this month. “The message is being circulated in various groups that the GOI has updated the software and now E-way bills will also be introduced by the February end,” said Aggarwal.

“We have filed queries regarding the GST/E-Way bills and are waiting for a reply from the eight members, appointed for the job. We have to be online/in-touch to know the answers,” he added.

“People panic when the site crashes or stops working. Now, it is expected that they will get relief as eight persons will answer their queries,” he said.