New Delhi, Oct 26 (KNN) GST Council, the apex policy making body for GST implementation will be meeting the representatives of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) soon.

To understand the problems being faced by MSMEs in adopting GST and find their solutions the Council announced formation of a Group of Ministers (GoM), after its meeting held on 6^th October, 2017.

The GoM will be chaired by the Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The other Ministers in the group are Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Hasim Drabu, Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Chhattisgarh minister of commercial taxes Amar Agrawal.

As per the announcements the Committee will meet members of different stakeholders to find out further simplification needed to make micro and small enterprises comfortable with GST.

The difficulty of MSMEs to adopt GST is being mentioned as a reason behind the current slow down in the economy.

MSMEs’ contribution is  nearly a third of the current GDP and about 40% of the commodity exports.

However, the complications in the procedures, glitches in the GST network and delays in  release of the refunds due, have made MSMEs to come out against the GST.

For  quite some time the MSME associations are trying to draw the attention of the Government towards a horde of fallacies in the GST layout.

It appears going beyond the frequent  patchworks, Government is thinking to take a holistic approach to the issue.

Most of the members of the Group constituted, were involved in designing the GST from the scratch and well aware  of the lacunae left unresolved.

It is expected that after interacting with the MSME leaders and hearing their considered suggestions, the Group of Minister will be able to solve the present gridlock. (KNN/DB)