World Trade Center Bhubaneswar associated with the Office /of the Chief Commissioner Central GST and Customs Bhubaneswar Zone to observe “Azaadi ka Amrut Mahotsav – A Taxpayer facilitation measure”. The program held through a virtual platform aimed at addressing the GST related issues faced especially by the MSMEs thereby facilitating trade and growth of MSME sector in a vibrant manner. Azaadi ka Amrut Mahotsav is a notion towards celebrating 75 years of India’s Independence as well as building a new, Aatma Nirbhar Bharat by the year 2022.

Mr. R. Manga Babu, IRS Chief Commissioner of Central GST & Customs Bhubaneswar Zone addressed the program as Chief Guest. While delivering the inaugural address he spoke about the Azaadi ka Amrut Mahotsav program and also acclaimed the trade friendly measures being taken by the Central Government in improving the MSME climate of the nation. Speaking on the importance of the MSME sector in India and the role the sector has to specifically in this time of an unprecedented crisis of COVID 19, he specified about the integration of some of the crucial schemes and also offered all feasible assistance to the entrepreneurs from his good office to the MSME fraternity of the State of Odisha.

Mr. Bijoy Kumar Kar, I.R.S, Principal Commissioner CGST Bhubaneswar, Commissionerate on Trade Facilitation Measures in GST & Customs by CBIC for MSME in his address deliberated on steps taken by Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India to improve our country’s overall business regulatory climate especially for MSME. He highlighted some of the major schemes such as Quarterly Return Monthly Payment (QRMP) scheme, E-invoice, Dynamic QR Code on B2C invoices for Businesses having annual aggregate turnover exceeding Rs. 500 Crores, declaring of HSN codes of 6 digits on B2B as well as B2C invoices which has been made mandatory for taxpayers having annual turnover exceeding Rs. 5 Crore.

Speaking on the Customs front, he shared that the CBIC has initiated and implemented several reform measure which has helped to reduce the time and cost of clearance of goods in the various Customs ports and finally has led to improve in the ranking of Ease of Doing Business (EODB) of India. He highlighted “Turant Customs’ and ‘Faceless Assessment’ of Bills of Entry as the biggest facilitation measure taken by the CBIC.

Further a panel of experts and officials including Mr. Sribas Nath, Assistant Commissioner, Mr. Tarun Agrawal, Chartered Accountant, M/s Taxopedia, Mr. Ramesh Chandra Jena, Advocate and . Govind Chandra Nath, Supdt.(Retd.) took up an interactive session and addressed the queries of the MSMEs registered with WTC Bhubaneswar.

Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan, Assistant Director, World Trade Center Bhubaneswar convened over the program and also proposed the vote of thanks.