Steel City Furnace Association has appealed to Ministry of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs to resolve the issues related to GST faced by traders and furnaces operators in Mandi Gobindgarh. The traders in this region have been on strike since a week.
The association has informed the ministry that all the manufacturing units in Mandi Gobindgarh are receiving invoices showing payment of tax and goods, however, there is no clarity about how many traders were involved in the chain and whether the tax was paid in the first stage or not.
Traders have alleged that GST officials are creating tremendous pressure to deposit high amount of tax. There are more than 50,000 workers in the units in Mandi Gobindgarh and Khanna that are a major source of employment.
The association has suggested a solution of ‘reverse charge mechanism’ where there would be no chance of non-payment of tax because every unit would have to pay tax from cash credit ledger.
The body also suggested limiting the number of dealers. Under Central Excise Act 1944, every dealer was required to disclose the detail of previous dealer in the invoice.
The association said if the reverse charge mechanism for paying taxes is implemented, then revenue would increase three-fold. It also said that all units would shut leading to large-scale unemployment if there is no immediate solution regarding the ongoing strike is found.