Guwahati, Nov. 2: The Assam tax department has sought the help of IIT Guwahati to upgrade its information technology (IT) facility for the goods and sales tax (GST) modules which will be implemented throughout the country from April next year.
"We need to upgrade both the hardware capacity, along with the operating software, to make our system viable for the GST modules. Assam's tax department has taken up the issue with IIT Guwahati to develop the system accordingly," commissioner of taxes Anurag Goel said here today, while addressing a seminar organised by Federation of Industries and Commerce in Northeast region (Finer).
Sumit Dutt Majumdar, former chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs, who was here as keynote speaker, said the Centre was mulling making an online registration forum called GSTnet.
"GSTnet will be an online forum through which the tax payers and the tax authorities will be able to interact. The taxpayers will have to register themselves. Their previous tax details will be uploaded in the system and the government will be able to scrutinise their tax-paying behaviour, based on which tax credits and benefits will be handled. The tax payers will also be able to put their grievances there and much transparency can be attained in the taxation sector through it," said Majumdar.
Goel, speaking on the viability of the online service in the state, said: "It will be a challenge for the IT sector of the tax department to make it possible here. But within six months, our software and hardware will be good to go."
The seminar was organised on how GST will help the Northeast and the nation in eliminating the hurdles in taxation.
The GST structure of India was based on that of Canada and was the most viable structure in the world now with a few adjustments to suit for Indian taxpayers, Majumdar said.
Finer chairman R.S. Joshi said, "GST will lead to uniform taxation in the Northeast and help eliminate the regional barriers here. The logistic movements will be smoother both to and from in this region. This will ultimately help bring down the cost of goods here."
