Srinagar: Businesses in the Kashmir Valley have begun filing their goods and services tax returns, but revenue collection remains a problem for the finance department of the union territory of J&K for the fifth straight month.
As reported by ThePrint last month, the finance department had raised a red-flag on the issue of the internet ban in the Valley, which it said had led to a “blockade of revenues”. It directed deputy commissioners in each district to open up internet kiosks where businesses could file their GST returns, which they had been unable to pay since the 5 August clampdown imposed due to the scrapping of Article 370.
So far, about 18,000 businesses have filed their GST returns, and the administration hopes that the remaining 30,000 will also be able to file theirs on time. The deadline is 20 December, just seven days away. However, the target looks unlikely to be achieved, because for that, about 4,000 businesses would have to file their returns daily — four times more than the current pace.
“The first few days were slow and not a lot of businessmen turned up to file the returns, but we have picked up the pace now. The response so far is good. In our conservative estimate, 1,000-1,200 businessmen are using the facilitation centres daily to file their returns. Hopefully, the numbers will pick up,” said P.K. Sharma, commissioner of the sales tax department.
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The November communication
The finance department’s 18 November communication, sent to the deputy commissioners, had revealed that only 40 per cent GST returns had been filed until then. Most of these were from the Jammu and Ladakh divisions of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, while in Kashmir, the number was just 6-7 per cent.
“Given that continuous extension in the date of filing of returns has led to blockade of revenues (both cash and IGST settlement), there has been a considerable dip in the revenue collections for the past three months,” the communication read.
Decreased revenue collections had further prompted the administration to issue full-page advertisements announcing that businessmen could file their returns at the newly-established facilitation centres in the State Taxes Department in all districts of Kashmir. This was few days after Kashmiri businessmen, who had gone to use the internet kiosks set up by the government, discovered that their GST identification numbers had been blocked because of non-filing of returns since July.
Despite the filing of returns having restarted, the business community continues to be concerned.
Sheikh Ashiq, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, expressed scepticism and said the dip in revenue collection is likely to continue for the fifth straight month.
“There are many reasons behind the slow filing of returns. I think if broadband services would have been restored till now, such situations would not have arisen,” Ashiq said.
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