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India–Bangladesh trade has not seen much of a blip with the GST roll-out as the two major land custom stations — Petrapole and Mahadipur — have completed their switchover to the new tax regime.
Exporters too confirmed that there wasn’t much of a problem with truck movements, as on Monday.
Petrapole (100 km from Kolkata) — the largest land port — has not seen any problem as such.
However, there were some initial hiccups at Mahadipur in Malda (some 370 km from Kolkata) on Sunday. Mahadipur, a distant second, handles around 500 trucks a day.
“There could have been some issue with the switchover; but all that has now been sorted out. The mandatory upgrade has happened,” a senior government official said.
Exporters’ stanceAccording to Basant Saraf, Director, Saraf Texim, export — truck movement through Petrapole-Benapole land port — has not been affected.
Saraf Texim is engaged in exporting steel, chemicals, food-grains and poultry feed to the neighbouring country.
“On a long term basis, GST should be good for exporters if some of the grey areas are sorted out,” he said.
Under GST, an exporter will need to pay applicable taxes on transactions, but can seek a refund. Tax exemptions are not given to them as it could break the GST chain. However, exporters claim that absence of such a tax refund pushes up their working capital requirements substantially.
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