Shillong,July 19: Vartalap, a day-long workshop for dissemination of information on Goods & Services Tax (GST) among the journalists of Meghalaya. The workshop was organised in association with DIPR, Meghalaya and Press Club, Shillong. Journalist, from both electronic and print media, from across Shillong and from West Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi and West Jaintia Hills district participated in the workshop.
Addressing the gathering at the inaugural session of the workshop, the Secretary Finance Govt. of Meghalaya termed GST as one of the most important Tax reform till date. He said that the state will not have any dip in revenue collection after the roll-out of Goods and Services Tax due to the compensation scheme. He informed the gathering that the GST council also deliberated on compensating the state governments if they incur loss in terms of revenue collection which is less than 14 per cent of base year. The secretary said that even though there shall be certain initial hiccups in the initial months after the Goods and Services Tax coming into force, but the government is taking due care to streamline the process as early as possible. He said that the state government is calling the dealers and traders and have been providing them support through interactions. Goyal said that the new tax is going to be beneficial for the consumers as it is subsuming various taxes and there will be reduction of tax burden on the consumers.
Joint Commissioner, GST, GoI, Shillong Shri L Beimopha, Deputy Director, DIPR Meghalaya and President Press Club, Shri David Laitphlang also participated in the workshop.
A M Paul, Assistant Commissioner and Shri P K Sen Superintendent, GST Shillong, GoI, presented an overview of the GST. The presentation highlighted various aspects of GST including background of GST, concept of GST, registration, types of taxes, difference between GST and VAT etc., Deputy Commissioner of Taxes, Govt. of Meghalaya L Khongsit and Assistant Commissioner of Taxes G G Marbaniang dealt with the Business Processes and Meghalaya GST through their presentation. Their presentation was followed by an interactive session where the resource persons were able to clear many of the doubts raised by the journalists.