Goods and Service Tax (GST) is now more than a year old and is still a tough nut to crack for a lot many, be it the professionals or the industry experts. There is no denying the fact that the GST law is indeed complex but what is easy in culturally and demographically diverse country such as India. There are a lot of budding experts and intellectuals who are striving to wash away the various shortcomings that deter people to understand GST completely and easily.
There are a lot of challenges which come in various forms that need to be sorted out for a better understanding and decoding of the GST law. A few of them that need sorting are as follows:
Interpretational issues: The law is always made complex for a reason that only God knows! The same goes for GST as well. The pioneers of policy making and its interpretation have found it hard to find the correct and appropriate interpretation of a few provisions and sections of the GST law. The appropriate interpretation is necessary because it can change a stride from saving millions to costing millions just due to a simple interpretation as it varies from person to person. Therefore, it is pertinent to address the issue of Interpretation in an oral or written form to each and every provision of the GST law.
Understanding through Flowcharts & Summary: In times where everyone is need of some ease in life, be it a job, a practice or education. In fact, everyone likes to learn something or the other in the easiest of ways. And as experience vouches, one of the easiest ways of learning something complex is by way of Flowcharts, Data Flow Diagrams or a crisp Summary served in an eye soothing form. Someone who could introduce GST law in Flowcharts, Data Flow Diagrams or a crisp Summary form will be considered a Knight in the shining armour!
Law as on date: This is a really interesting feature that we see in products which helps us to see the respective law as on a specific date. In other words, one can easily see what were laws and notifications applicable on a specific date in the past.
Circulars & Press Releases: The present Government has been smart enough to realise that the approval of any amendment to a law takes a lot of convincing and voting in both the Houses. Therefore, they have taken the way of increasing the number of Circulars, Notifications or Press Releases in order to make changes in the law to expedite the process and for the ease of the trade too. But the number of these circulars/press releases is quite huge and keeping a tab on each and every circular is too cumbersome. There is dire need of a consolidated summary of these circulars, press releases, notifications on real time which would prove to be helpful in the long run and to remain updated.
Forms & Specimen: Across a lot of educational platforms and FAQs, one constant request that comes up is that for a Specimen of an Invoice, a Panchnama, a Show Cause Notice, Adjudicating Orders, formats of various forms or guidelines on how to prepare a specific document under GST or how to fill up a specific form or return. This is a highly sought after query and needs to be addressed through an Archive of all the said specimens and forms. This is really important as it provides ready to use or require very slight change for solutions for various letters and documents to the tax authorities. This improves the workflow and speed by significant time.
Case Laws and Updates:The Courts and Authority of Advance Rulings (AAR) has been proactive in giving judgements in record shortest spans of time under GST. There have already been thousands of rulings and judgements passed by various state courts as well as the AAR. These judgements and ruling need to be trimmed out of the relevant portions and presented together at a platform so that it’s easy to find just the final inference drawn and not read the whole judgement that usually runs through numerous pages.
There is an urgent requirement to address these basic issues to enhance the understanding and reducing the confusion related to GST and its provisions and rules. Although, a GST E-book has been launched by “LawCrux” which has categorically tried to capture all the mentioned issues and find a practical solution to address these issues in the form of GST E-book which might transit one from a Layman to a Leadman in Goods and Service Tax law. The best part of it is the offer of a video Demo run with the E-book for free along with other allied and earlier laws too. This could definitely act as a catalyst to change the way GST is read and understood. It is important to look forward to these products because it’s high time that everyone gets themselves acquainted with the complexities and provisions of GST.
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