The finance ministry apart from working on the smooth implementation of the GST is doing an important task — analysing what is written in national and international media on the GST and responding to them — especially to what they see as misinformation or mispropaganda.
Over 200 top officials at the central level are looking at only tackling the communication and information dissemination part of GST. They have reviewed articles, opinion pieces, cartoon strips, popular social media forwards that have appeared over the last few months in the run up to the GST launch.
“This is the first time, we are not only implementing the tax but also proactively monitoring the response every day. Top most officials, experts at finance are dealing with how people’s doubts should be addressed,” an official said, adding that the Centre has identified at least 9 big points of mispropaganda as it calls them which are being countered by the government in its training sessions.
“The most common panic technique is that GST will increase the number of arrests which is a blatant lie as it will happen only to tax evaders after investigation. If the company’s turnover is more than `100 cr and if the owner has not paid the 5% duty, anybody in the world will agree that he needs to penalised. Then there is this thing about the need for internet all the time for GST to function. You need internet facility two times in a month for 10 minutes to submit the returns and for tax payment,” an official said.
The analysis has also picked up allegations of media which they see as churlish. “Some have said GST is such a sophisticated tax that it needs consultants and cannot be handled by traditional firms. We know for sure that even small firms have consultants now. Individuals hire them for Income tax too.”
All the 50,000 officials trained in nuances of GST have been asked to talk to people, clarify doubts. This time all ads given to newspapers, the videos made to educate people online and even the tweets posted – everything was done after studying feedback. Officials have been asked to reply to tweets as and when they are received to clarify the doubts of people and more so to counter misinformation.
The work done by these officials also concludes that the international media has been more supportive of the step and is curious as to how the country with federal structure is taking it forward. “The international media largely is watching keenly on how India will implement it. Our analysis of international media reports says the feeling is largely mixed. The reports from international investors has been largely positive. Some reports abroad have correctly said that the GST is a recipe made from 29 different recipes and it is bound to have the best of everything,” an official said adding that it took the Indian media a little while to get the nuances of the GST right.
“There is still a lot more even journalists need to do with respect to GST. But as we go through the reports that have appeared over the years, we see that this is first time States have reposed so much faith in the centre.”
Of the regional media, experts who have looked at the articles coming out, the analysis has said that reports in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal were highly critical in the run up to the GST till March. “Now the criticism is more to do with the alleged unpreparedness of the government which will be proved wrong.”
Guidance notes are being sent to specific sectors based on reports in media about how they are implementing GST.
via GST: Centre deploys 200 finance ministry officials to counter GST mispropaganda – The Economic Times
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