With teething troubles under the new indirect tax levy yet to be resolved, industry bodies and exporters met the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, on Wednesday to discuss their problems under the goods and services tax (GST).

Issues such as implementation challenges, including timely refund for exporters as well as proposals for rate revisions under GST, were discussed at the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also urged the government and States to “handhold” traders who are facing difficulties under GST.

Separately, the government is working closely to address the glitches relating to the GST Network and industry issues through State Finance Ministers and an expert group led by Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

“The Minister has taken on board all our points,” said Ganesh Gupta, President, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), adding that small exporters have been particularly impacted by GST.

It has called for exemption from GST for merchant exporters, allowing immediate refund to help exporters free up working capital and permitting the use of export benefit scrips for payment of Integrated and Central GST.

Similarly, industry chamber Assocham said companies should get the same benefits they received in the pre-GST era. Further, benefits due to area-based excise exemption unit should be granted at the earliest by settling the refund rate and refunds should be immediately processed.

The chamber also called for easier compliance under GST, including a single return form. “Filing of GST return has become nightmare for taxpayers. Returns filing for at least six months should be deferred though taxpayers can continue to pay tax,” said JK Mittal of Assocham.

Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said the sector is faced with a huge problem as exports are declining.

“Small businesses are getting impacted more. Some have cut their productions also. We have raised the issue of compliance,” Pandya said.

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) Council Member, Satwinder Singh, said concerns related to reverse charge mechanism and refund were raised at the meeting.

While welcoming the roll out of GST, industry chamber FICCI also urged the GST Council to “quickly address the issues that have been thrown up in the implementation process”.

Some of these concerns may also be taken up when the council led by Jaitley meets on October 6.

Representatives from KPMG, CII, FICICI, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Laghu Udyog Bharati, GST service providers, ICSI, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Amazon were also present.

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