CHENNAI: As the implementation of GST has slackened the trade across the board, questions arise whether the State will be able to earn back its Rs 5,000 crore monthly average revenue through taxes.
While the State Commercial Taxes Department says that a proper figure of sales turnover post-GST would be arrived at only after August 20, it is felt that there may be some teething problems initially and could be overcome soon. “We had implemented a software called Total Solutions and have been resolving grievances since 2016. Now the software is better,” an official said.
Interestingly, the Department is pinning its hope on the traders getting adapted to online payments. “Of an average Rs 5,000 crore sales turnover, 95% is through online transactions. This is high when compared to northern States,” he added.Traders from various sectors have already started demanding that GST be lowered, citing low sales and difficulties in the new billing method.
N Ram Sundaram points at the words ‘no sales’ written in the accounts of his furniture shop in Vadapalani. “Before GST, we used to sell products worth Rs 2 lakh per week. Now there is no sale for days together and the weekly turnover has gone down to Rs 3,000. We are struggling to pay our workers,” he said, criticising the exorbitant increase in tax on furniture from 14.5% to 28%.
“We are not familiar with computerised billing and the new tax system is so confusing to old timers, difficult to comprehend,” added Sundaram.“Customers thoroughly go through the bill before making payments thinking that, due to GST, we might charge them more. But we don’t charge them more than the maximum retail price and bear the loss,” said K Mohamed Fazil, owner of a shoe store in Anna Nagar.
Another trader, who runs a stationery shop in Anna Nagar, lamented that along with low sales they are hit by a shortage of stock from companies who say they are still adapting.