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Informist, Friday, Jun. 20, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told field officers under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs to work on ways to make the Goods and Services Tax registration process easier, seamless, and more transparent, the finance ministry said in a release Friday. In the two-day conclave of CBIC held here, Sitharaman told officers to prepare an action plan to improve various parameters like GST registration, processing of refunds, and handling taxpayers' grievances, the ministry said.

 

In this quest, technology and risk-based parameters can be used, she said. The two-day conclave was called to review the performance of GST and customs-related field-level compliances and challenges to ensure easing of bottlenecks for businesses and provide compliance-easy tax regime.

 

Sitharaman told central GST officers to launch targeted awareness campaigns among taxpayers, trade associations, and industry bodies regarding the mandatory documentation required for GST registration, particularly those related to the principal place of business. This will help reduce rejections and delays in registration and enable faster processing of applications, she said. The finance minister also told central GST zonal heads to have a dedicated helpdesk for GST registrations to facilitate the taxpayers in the application process.

 

Speaking about both GST and customs, Sitharaman called for speedy closure of investigations, along with an analysis on detection and recovery and to seek solutions to reduce the gap between detection and recovery. At the same time, she batted for the need to prevent tax evasion and wrongful Input Tax Credits claims.

 

The finance minister also told CBIC officers to expedite the processing of GST and customs refunds to ensure timely redressal and ease of doing business, especially for micro, small and medium enterprises and exporters. "The Finance Minister also suggested that the CGST and Customs zones may dedicate teams within the zones to further expedite the resolution of grievances," the ministry said in the release.

 

To customs officers, Sitharaman said further work needs to be done to reduce dwell time at seaports, airports, and inland container depots for both imports and exports, and emphasised that faster cargo clearance is crucial to enhance India's global trade competitiveness and ease of doing business. She asked field officers to actively undertake trade facilitation measures within their jurisdictions and to submit actionable suggestions to the ministry for further streamlining of procedures.  End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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