GST roll out: West Bengal to write to Centre seeking deferment citing unprepared traders

Kolkata: Reiterating that small and medium-sized traders in the country were not prepared for the Goods and Services Tax, the West Bengal government has decided to write to the Centre again requesting for postponement of the roll out of the new tax system on 1 July.[caption id="attachment_2931490" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. Reuters[/caption]"Small and medium-sized traders in the country are not prepared for the GST. And we can foresee that we are heading towards a disastrous situation. We are again writing to the Centre to reconsider the roll out from 1 July and postpone it until the nation is ready for it," finance minister Amit Mitra said.Referring to a report that small traders in Surat were opposing the roll out of GST because they have "no idea" about the system, Mitra said that the Centre must rethink and postpone the introduction of the new tax regime."Not only in West Bengal but we have been getting reports from around 5,000 small and medium traders in Surat who are eyeing closure of their businesses because of the GST," he said."We have repeatedly said in the GST council that the roll out must be done systematically. In other countries like Germany and Japan, they had given 12 to 18 months before the introduction of such tax system," he said.