Adil Lateef
Srinagar, Sept 17: Despite Goods and Services Tax (GST) coming into effect in Jammu and Kashmir in July, the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) of various Government departments have failed to register themselves with the new tax regime, which has created a huge problem for the contractors and the suppliers, whose bills have been withheld by the departments.
Some of the DDOs spoke to Excelsior pleaded their helplessness in releasing the payments saying they have no option to deduct the tax at source and remit the same to the Government as they are yet to register themselves with the GST regime. “There is no option with the GST website of the Government of India for DDOs to register. When we have no registration, how we can deduct tax at source and release the payments,” a DDO, wishing anonymity, said.
He said that in the last two months, the contractors and suppliers have been pressuring them to release their payments post GST era. “However, when we approached the Sales Tax Department for registering ourselves, they pleaded that the Government of India website has no option yet to register the DDOs. It has created problem for both DDOs as well as contractors and suppliers,” he rued.
The contractors and suppliers also are up in arms against the Government’s failure to clear their dues. “We have taken loans from the banks at high interest rates with the hope that as soon our payments are released, we will repay the loans. However, more than two months have passed, we are yet to know what is the problem in releasing our payments,” they said.
Jammu and Kashmir Contractors Coordination Committee (JKCCC) chairman, Ghulam Jeelani Purza said payments worth hundreds of crores are withheld due to non-registration of DDOs with GST. “Earlier, there used to be Tin number but then that was converted into GST number after implementation of new tax regime. Neither DDOs nor Divisions are registered so far which has blocked our payments and we are in distress,” he said, adding: “the Government has no idea what GST is. They have messed up everything.”
When contacted, Commissioner Commercial Taxes Department Parvaiz Iqbal Khateeb admitted that there is no option for DDOs GST registration as of now. But, he said, the registration would begin from September 18 for all DDOs. He, however, said that there was no bar on release of payments by DDOs. “They (DDOs) are not liable to withhold payments due to non-registration of GST. There is no problem at all. We have already conducted seminars in this regard to make them aware,” he told Excelsior.
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