Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has sought inputs from industry on the proposed Goods & Services Tax (GST) and has said that all their concerns would be taken on board.

“Businesses should interact with the government. We need inputs from industry on GST. Tell us your concerns. Our government is responsive,” Sitharaman said speaking at an event organised by industry body CII on Thursday.

Several sectors such as the IT & ITES, financial services, plantation, e-commerce, renewable and energy have expressed concern over various aspects of the GST Bill. These include complex billing and invoicing requirements, lack of clarity on continuation of exemption from State levies and increase in total taxes. Any lingering doubt with regard to GST or on any policy matter in the minds of investors should be addressed by the States and the Centre, she said.

On the government’s efforts to increase ease of doing business in the country, Sitharaman said that 12 States had complied with as much as 75 per cent of ‘ease of doing business’ targets. “There are very many who now have to catch up,” she said, adding that the government had identified more than 340 processes on which it wanted States to remove all existing constraints.

Businesses can be sure that while regulatory content from the government’s side would improve, there would be no increase in regulatory intensity, the Minister added.

The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) is committed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of bringing India in the top 50 countries (from 130 at present) by 2018 in World Bank’s ease of doing business index, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said.

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