Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Jan 19: Far flung Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are believed to be one of the most expensive place in India, is now expecting to reap benefit from GST.
Traders and Accounts experts believe that GST will be beneficial for these remote islands where till now traders were paying multiple taxes to multiple agencies, which resulted in price hike. Because of various taxes and high transportation costs the prices of many commodities are higher in Andaman than rest of India.
Moreover, experts believe that GST will make things more transparent and traders won’t able to charge extra from public giving excuse of multiple taxes and taxes will be fixed for everything.
When contacted Mr. Girish Arora, the President of Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) today said that rates of most of the items except sin goods will reduce and petroleum and Alcohol, for which Octroi and Excise duty will continue the prices won’t vary too much.
“GST will cover all taxes applicable in Andaman like excise, VAT,CST, Local Octroi and Service Tax. The benefit will be that now one has to pay single point tax. In Andaman after GST prices of some commodities will certainly reduces but prices of some commodities might go up but overall GST will be beneficial for Andaman,” said Mr. Arora.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha Mr. Satyabrata Dass, Chartered Accountant said that GST will come with some complications but end users will certainly reap benefits.
“There will be some complications with GST and also problems related to follow up with legal compliances but otherwise as far as taxation part and benefit GST will be beneficial for Islands said.” Mr. Satyabrata Dass, a well known Chartered Accountant of these Islands.
Procedural aspect will be too lengthy as monthly one will have to file three returns that makes 36 returns in a year plus one annual return. This will be beneficial for consumers as things will be too much transparent now,” said Mr. Himanshu Ghosh, an Chartered Accountant based in Port Blair.
