By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 04, 2017: THE Cabinet Secretary, Mr P K Sinha, yesterday reviewed post-GST situation with Secretaries and Senior Officers of different Departments and asked them among others to ensure that there is adequate supply of commodities especially essential and consumer items to keep their prices under check. 

The Review Meeting was attended by the Secretaries/Senior Officers of different Ministries/Departments including Revenue, Textile, Food, Agriculture, Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution, Food Processing, Railways, MSME, Rural Development, Tourism, Fertilizers, Pharma and Department of Financial Services (DFS), Chairperson and Members of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Additional Secretary,GST Council among others .

The review was focused on the general situation after the GST implementation and consumer impact of GST implementation in particular. As we know that the GST was rolled-out on 1st July, 2017.

Mr. Sinha asked every Secretary to take-up the responsibility of addressing the GST related issues of their respective stakeholders, trade and industry. He asked them to contact and coordinate with the State Government officers of their Department to ensure smooth implementation of GST. He also asked them to make their GST Cell and Nodal Officers fully equipped to deal with any situation and fully assist their respective stakeholders in post GST situation.

The Cabinet Secretary asked all the Departments to ensure that there is no shortage of products and commodities especially consumer items dealt by the respective Ministry/Department in order to keep the prices under check. Special emphasis was laid on to keep prices of essential commodities under check The Cabinet Secretary asked all the Departments/Ministry to provide all the relevant information relating to GST concerning their Ministry/Department including GST rates on their respective websites.

Mr. Sinha asked the Departments’ concerned to ensure that retailers, dealers/ shopkeepers display the post GST prices of different items being sold by them. He said that each Department/Ministry should ensure that benefits of GST are passed on to the consumers by traders/retailers etc which would in turn also help in keeping the inflation under control.

The Cabinet Secretary asked all the Departments that various machines used by dealers, retailers for computerized billing should be calibrated at the earliest as per the new GST rates. This exercise shall be completed in a time bound manner without delay.

The Cabinet Secretary asked all the Departments to be ready to deal with the queries of their respective stakeholders concerning GST law and rates. In order to achieve the same, the officers of every Ministry should equip themselves with an updated and complete knowledge of all the details relating to GST as applicable in case of their respective Ministry/Department.

It was decided that a weekly Review Meeting will be held to keep a close watch on post GST situation. Earlier, the Secretaries of different Departments updated about the queries received from the traders and other stakeholders after GST roll-out. The Cabinet Secretary asked them to get more detailed feedback and in depth details from field from their respective stakeholders, officers and consumers at large after GST implementation. Accordingly, they should be fully ready to deal with it so that there is quick response to any situation. He asked them to launch campaigns to make their stakeholders and consumers fully aware about GST related matters concerning their respective Ministry/Department.