The Goods and Services Tax, rolled out nationally on July 1, 2017 that was a very significant step in the field of indirect tax reforms in India. Aimed at enhancing the economic integration of India, the tax system seeks to put in place a simpler, technology driven tax regime that facilitates ease of compliance from businesses while augmenting tax revenue and ease of administration. The Central Tax Department has been tasked with the seamless implementation and administration of the new tax regime.

As part of this mandate and its role as facilitators of trade and industry, the Department has decided to conduct a series of outreach programs nationally to raise awareness about GST among various stakeholders including commerce and industry, tax practitioners and officers of the department.

In order to achieve this various workshops/awareness campaigns has been scheduled in different locations of Kerala in the month of October, 2017 to highlight the GST related issues. These programmes, which will have senior officers in attendance, will focus on three themes viz. (i) Consumer Awareness (ii) Small and Medium Sector Enterprises and (iii) GST return filing.