When you get the GST blues

these shops. The success of these consultants depended less on knowing the intricacies of the law and more on the rapport they shared with the tax departments. Consulting for the new tax regime will mean fresh understanding of its implications and worse, a familiarity with technology and submission of documents online.

Tax consultants I asked were clueless about procedures for new registrations, busy as they were with helping migrate their existing customers to the new regime. I turned to my chartered accountant friends in Kolkata and they were not of much help either.

So I decided to just study it myself and wondered what my fellow artisans/craft entrepreneurs were thinking or doing. My survey started with the weaving cluster close to Santiniketan. They had not only heard of the new tax but had already started speaking to consultants because without a GST number, apparently, Amazon was not lifting any supplies!

I was impressed. I then called the officebearer of the leather association in Santiniketan. I thought that with a 28 per cent tax prescribed on leather products he would be a worried man. He seemed to know little and said he would go to Kolkata to meet his lawyer. He promised to get back and let me have any information that he had gleaned.

I called my tussar weaver in Bhagalpur to figure out whether he had made any moves to be GST-ready. “Haan, ek number lena hai. Aisa bataya sablok (Yes, I have to take a number. That’s what everone said)” was his response. I could see my “input credits” in grave jeopardy for the next few months.

I met up with my wood craftsman artisan, who now does a lot of business thanks to the numerous fairs that the Mamata Bannerjee government organises. He had heard of GST, knew that ~20 lakh revenue a year was the stipulation for new registrations but had other plans. With a gleam in his eye he told me, “only if I put my revenue in the bank will the government know that I cross ~20 lakh”. “I am not worried, Didi,” he said with enviable confidence.

Meanwhile, my colleagues at my workshop and in my shop had been overhearing my phone conversations and must have figured out my worries on doing business under the new regime. What amazed me was that even these semi-literate women were quick to figure out that the store in Bolpur, from where we bought our thread supplies and who refused to give us a bill, would now be in trouble. If nothing else, the Narendra Modi government’s insistence on pushing through with this would surely enhance awareness levels.

And then I got a call from one of the salesgirls in my shop. She said the credit card machine was not working because there was no network. “Could this have something to do with this new GST thing you have been talking about,” she asked.