Nagaland appeals Centre to train officials on GST

Dimapur, June 15 : The meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers was held in Kolkata on June 14 and 15 under the chairmanship of Dr Amit Mitra, Finance Minister of West Bengal to discuss issues related to the implementation of GST(Goods and Services Tax). Nagaland was represented by NeibaKronu, Parliamentary Secretary, Planning and Coordination, Evaluation and Monitoring and Taxes and Asangba ChubaAo, IAS, Commissioner of Taxes. Nagaland highlighted some of the issues for smooth transition such as mandatory PAN for registration, mandatory online payment, threshold limit and CST compensation. The State also sought support from the Centre for training of officials and other stakeholders, upgrading its computer systems and technical handholding. The State hoped that the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill will come up in Parliament for passage during the monsoon session, which if passed could see the tax reform being implemented by 1st April 2017. A statement from Office of the Commissioner of Taxes, Nagaland informed that almost all states supported the early implementation of the new regime which is considered to be the biggest tax reform post-independence. The Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley also attended the meeting along with senior officials from the Government of India.