Addressing a press conference here today, President
Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation (KTMF) Muhammad Yasin Khan said:
“Majority of the traders cannot fill up the 7-page VAT return form unless they
have assistance of a trained accountant, which they cannot afford for the
obvious reasons.”
“The new form is quite difficult to fill. It will entail
the maintenance of a large number of books and assistance of a trained
accountant. So we demand that government should defer it till further orders and
in the meantime carry out necessary modifications in it,” he said.
“The government has increased number of pages of the VAT
return form from one to seven making it more complicated,” he said. He said the
time for filing of the first quarter VAT return form ends on 31st July. “The
traders won’t be able to switch over to this new form in this short period of
time.”
“We have approached the government several times for the
withdrawal of this form but they don’t take us seriously. We want the VAT form
to be simple which the traders can fill without any difficulty,” said former
president KTMF Sadiq Baqal.
He said the government introduced the new VAT form
without taking the traders of the state into confidence.
“Unnecessary information in the new VAT form creates
difficulties for the traders. Government should modify the VAT form after
consulting the traders,” said Yasin.
A representative of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Fayaz Ahmad said the complicated VAT form could put the traders to
trouble in case “we fill something wrong due to our ignorance.”
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