Traders find ingenious ways to avoid paying GST

NEW DELHI: Traders across the nation have found a unique way to not pay the Goods and Service Tax (GST). With transporters demanding GST enrolment numbers to supply goods, traders are now turning to private passenger bus operators to secretly transport goods from the Capital to other parts of the country.

Bus operators say on condition of anonymity that their buses start from Kashmere Gate or Anand Vihar and travel overnight to selected destinations for which they have doubled fares for the passengers and imposed a limit of two suitcases per person.

This, they say, ensures that there is more space for the goods. So how do the traders manage? Sources say that the traders are mostly accompanied by family members and friends so that more suitcases can be accommodated. But again bus operators say, such traders take unusual measures to ensure that they are not caught during a surprise check.

"Most of the traders decide to carry their goods in fancy bags and suitcases, so they look like normal passengers carrying luggage and not goods," says a bus operator on condition of anonymity. Whatever the traders may think, bus operators are very happy as it means increased revenue for them, and their employees. Rakesh Sharma, an employee with one such operators says that GST has brought only good things for them. "Nowadays, we earn more by transporting these goods than by transporting humans. We are earning profits from carrying these goods only while passengers are just an added bonus for the company.