Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry organized a Special Session on “GST @ 6 : Driving Growth through Tax Reforms”, on 25th July at the Conference Hall of the Chamber.
Mr. Khalid Aizaz Anwar, IAS, Commissioner, State Tax, Directorate of Commercial Taxes, Govt. of West Bengal addressed the Session, today.
Mr. Sanjib Kumar Kothari, Treasurer & Chairman, Council on MSMEs, Mr. Lavesh Poddar, Chairman, Council on Logistics, Transport & Shipping, Mr. Siddhartha Sawansukha, Chairman, Council on Gems & Jewellery, MCCI and Mr. Munish Jhajharia, Chairman, Council on Infrastructure & Real Estate & Director, Multiwyn Group shared the issues on GST in the sectors including MSMEs, Logistics and Gems & Jewellery.
Mr. Khalid Aizaz Anwar, IAS, Commissioner, State Tax, Directorate of Commercial Taxes, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of West Bengal in his address said that the department has started a drive for cancelling registration of fraud companies. More than 6.35 lakh companies’ registration have been cancelled and frauds have been estimated in excess of Rs 19,000 crore. In Kolkata 2,660 shell companies were existing, whose registration has been cancelled. He said the government’s GST collection has increased from 21% to 23% for the clearance drive.
He said the department has identified pockets where false registration are being made. Claims of input credit without paying any GST has to be absolutely stopped, for which the department is running with stringent action.
Mr. Namit Bajoria, President MCCI in his Welcome Address said that GST was introduced on 1 st July 2017 with the mantra “One Nation, One Tax, One Market”, subsuming a large number of consumption taxes that previously existed in India, administered separately by the Centre and the States. Mr. Bajoria praised that the tax reform measures witnessed record GST collections on a month-on-month basis, indicating not only improvement in economic activity but also in efficiency of the measures to plug revenue leakages.
He further informed that West Bengal, being a destination state, has benefitted financially from imposition of GST. GST collection in West Bengal was Rs. 5,053 cr. in June 2023 as compared to Rs. 4,331 cr. in June 2022, registering a 17% increase growth.
Session was concluded with a hearty Vote of Thanks proposed by Mr. Sanjib Kumar Kothari, Treasurer & Chairman, Council on MSMEs, MCCI.
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