New Delhi, 14 June (KNN) Traders’ body, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), has urged the Government to lower GST rates on various products, including auto parts and aluminium utensils.

Submitting a white paper on GST to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Secretary-General of CAIT, Praveen Khandelwal urged the FM to review items placed under different tax slabs under GST as many of the items are overlapping.

He said as a matter of policy, the tax rate of raw material should not be more than the tax rate of finished goods. Various items like Auto Parts and Aluminum Utensils are not of luxurious nature should be taken out from 28% tax slab and may be put under a lower tax slab.

Also, he urged the Minister to simplify Form GSTR 9 and 9C as it demands various information which was not prescribed earlier and hence traders are unable to comply with the same.

He said that as per original announcement, the Non-Banking Finance Companies and Micro Finance Institutions should be roped in Mudra scheme to lend finance to the ultimate beneficiary and Banks should be asked to lend finance to NBFCs & MFIs.

While welcoming waiving off of bank charges on NEFT & RTGS, Khandelwal suggested that in order to encourage adoption & acceptance of digital payments, the bank charges levied on Card payments should be subsidized by the Government directly to Banks and neither the traders and nor the consumers should be charged any bank charges on card payment transactions. He also urged the Minister to form GST Lokpal in each State and the Centre.

The Minister assured the delegation that she will look into the issues raised by CAIT. The intention of the Government is certainly to simplify the tax procedure so that more and more people can easily comply with the same.

The trading community being the last mile contact with consumers plays an important role in the collection of the revenue and as such no undue hardship is faced by traders will be ensured.

At the same time, she urged the traders to streamline their existing business format and make timely compliance of the law.

In its White Paper on GST, the CAIT has raised many issues including Advance Ruling, Reverse Charge Mechanism, Rectification of GST Returns, Liability of paying GST should be devolved on Seller only and no action should be taken against buyer, clarification of jurisdiction of CGST and SGST, HSN code issues, Abolition of Form ITC-04, Return of expired drugs to be treated as supply.

The CAIT has also urged in its White Paper to reduce the tax rate from current slab to appropriate lower tax slab for items like Hardware & Millgin, Mobile covers, food items, Dry fruits, Ice Cream, food grains, Malt/cereal based health food drinks, Paints, Marble, Used Vehicles, two-wheelers, Agricultural equipments, Roasted Chana, etc.