The GST Council had given the option to real estate companies to either opt for old rates of 12% (for residential) and 8 per cent (affordable housing) with ITC benefits or the new tax rates of 5% for residential units and 1% for affordable housing without the benefit of adjusting the credit on inputs used during construction.
Certain technical problems are being faced by the taxpayers as a result annual return for the period July 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 could not be furnished.
An audit conducted by professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal confirms fintech firm's dealings with fake or non-existent vendors.
With this, 85 officers, including 64 high ranking ones, have been compulsorily retired.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said taxpayer base has almost doubled to 1.28 crore in four years of rollout of the historic tax reform and the enhanced GST mop up in the recent months should now be the "new normal". In a written message to tax officers on the fourth anniversary of GST rollout, she said implementing any reform of this scale in a large and diverse country like India can be highly challenging, but GST has brought about ease in taxpayer compliance and reduced common man's tax burden.
The government has notified a host of procedural changes in the GST rules, including levy of interest for wrongful utilisation of ITC and turnover threshold for filing annual returns for the 2021-22 fiscal. The changes were vetted by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council at its meeting last week. With the amendments notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), businesses have also been allowed to make tax payments on the GSTN portal by using IMPS and UPI payment modes.
After the massive tax evasion of GST by cryptocurrency service provider WazirX, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence has come down heavily on cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country, said sources. "Around half a dozen offices of cryptocurrency service providers have been searched and massive Goods and Service Tax (GST) evasion has been detected by DGGI," sources told ANI. Crypto wallet and exchange are platforms where merchants and consumers can transact with digital assets like bitcoin, ethereum, ripple, etc.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) said through a post on its official Twitter handle that the premises of its MLC Pushpraj alias Pampi Jain in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, have been raided.
With Goods and Services Tax (GST) officers under pressure to exceed the Rs 1-trillion collection mark per month, industry has faced a barrage of recovery notices and summons issued over the last one month across sectors, according to company executives. Industry bodies have claimed harassment by field officers, blocking of input tax credit, cancellation of GST registration, threats of arrest and steep penalties, impacting their working capital and operations. Company executives pointed at an atmosphere of apprehension and fear due to such notices and summons.
With this, India joins 60 other countries that collect PNR details of international passengers.
'There are unscrupulous traders who create fake invoices by showing bogus e-way bills, movement of goods.' 'Since the entities registered across different states, and kept on changing their numbers, tracing them was difficult.'
The government has extended the deadline for filing GST annual return and audit report for the 2018-19 fiscal year by a month, till October 31.
The finance ministry on Monday said the recent raid on perfume trader Peeyush Jain's house in Kanpur, from where more than Rs 177 cr unaccounted cash was unearthed, was the "biggest ever seizure of cash" by an enforcement agency. The December 26 raid, which resulted in Jain's arrest, included searches at Jain's residential/factory premises in Kannauj, where about Rs 17 crore in cash have been recovered, the ministry said in a release. Further searches are underway at Jain's residential/factory premises in Kannauj.
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said despite the electronic way or E-way bill mechanism there has been rampant evasion and there is a need to increase compliance.
The ambiguity arose after notices were sent to lenders for non-payment of service tax under the pre-GST regime
The searches since December 22, which resulted in Jain's arrest, also included searches at the trader's residential/factory premises in Kannauj, wherein about Rs 17 crore in cash, 23 kg of gold and 600 kg sandalwood oil having a market value of about Rs 6 crore have been recovered, the ministry said in a release.
The government has notified mandatory requirement of e-invoicing for B2B transactions for businesses with a turnover over Rs 100 crore with effect from January 1, 2021. Under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, e-invoicing for business-to-business (B2B) transactions is mandatory for companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore from October 1. In a notification, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said e-invoicing will be extended to businesses with a turnover over Rs 100 crore from January 1.
The government has reduced the tariff value for import of edible oil, including palm oil, by up to $112 per tonne, a move which experts said can lead to lower domestic prices. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), through a notification, has cut the tariff import value of crude palm oil by $86 per tonne, and of RBD and crude palmolein by $112 per tonne each. It also reduced the base import price of crude soyabean oil by $37 per tonne. The changes in tariff value of edible oil are effective from Thursday (June 17).
The issue is set to be discussed early next week as the commerce department meets with industry bodies to discuss the widening supply gap for key imports.
Recently, the finance ministry waived off basic customs duty and health cess on imported oxygen and related equipment for three years.
As much as Rs 8,000 crore worth of mobile phones in this segment - out of a total of Rs 15,000 crore - come into the country through the grey market. The government imposed the duty on these phones primarily to encourage domestic production but the strategy has failed as the bulk of high end mobile phones are currently imported.
The government has sacked these officers ranging from the ranks of principal commissioner to assistant commissioner, some of whom were already under suspension.
Conformity assessment procedures will be put in place to verify that goods and services sold on e-commerce platforms meet required standards and technical regulations, according to the draft e-commerce policy. The policy, which is under discussion, also stated that actions and things which cannot be done by the online platform entities "can also not be done" by any of its associates and related parties. Government may, from time to time, notify parties which fall in the definition of associates and related parties, it said.
The net indirect tax collection in 2020-21 grew 12.3 per cent annually to Rs 10.71 lakh crore, thereby exceeding the target set in revised estimates, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The mop-up through indirect taxes, which include GST, Customs and excise duties, was Rs 9.54 lakh crore in 2019-20. In the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2020-21, the target was set at Rs 9.89 lakh crore. Net collections from Goods and Services Tax (GST) stood at Rs 5.48 lakh crore during 2020-21, an eight per cent drop compared to Rs 5.99 lakh crore in the previous fiscal year.
By November 3, only 17,000 applications with tax payable amounting to Rs 1,100 crore have been received by the government, under the Sabka Vishwas Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme. The scheme gives a deep discount of 70 per cent for cases pending appeal where tax demand is more than Rs 50 lakh, and 50 per cent waiver beyond that amount.
With exporters' claim for over five months still pending, liquidity has been wiped out and the process of finalising new contracts has been held up.
This provision is a very smart rule against fraudster and would not affect any genuine business entities or Ease of Doing Business in any manner, said a source.
Sputnik V is the third vaccine India has given the go-ahead to after 'Covishield', developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and 'Covaxin', the indigenous vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech. Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Sources said the action was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort when he said some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assesses or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations.
The instruction is that audit of large units be completed within seven working days, of medium units in five working days and of small ones in three.
Industry had sought this 3-month extension, specifically for players struggling to collate the information that are required to be disclosed in the GST forms.
The revenue from GST for the current fiscal has been pegged at over Rs 4.44 lakh crore, while for next fiscal it is Rs 7.43 lakh crore.
The aim of the exercise was to further simplify GST forms and make the filing process more user-friendly, the finance ministry said in a tweet, reports Dilasha Seth.
The Centre's revenue from GST registered a decline of 10 per cent in 2017-18 compared to revenue of subsumed taxes in 2016-17.
A government report revealed that fake companies floated with fake addresses, issued fake GST invoices and generated fake e-way bills, with fake vehicle registration details without supplying any goods causing huge loss to the exchequer.
The government is looking to plug loopholes in the Indian customs law provision that allows tax exemptions for gifts up to Rs 5,000 and trade samples up to Rs 10,000 sent to India from abroad.
Particularly hit has been the apparel sector, where the time taken by the industry to adjust to the Goods and Services Tax regime, downward revision of export incentives, and a credit squeeze faced by small and medium scale enterprises, has pushed production downwards.
The focus will be on tackling the unfinished agenda requiring immediate attention like tax structure for solar projects, uniform tax rate on state-organised and state-authorised lotteries, taxing non-potable alcohol besides certain changes in the law, extension for NAA and rate rationalisation.
The CBEC will itself be rechristened as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and will supervise GST and Customs activities and provide the government policy inputs.
Experts point out that National Anti-profiteering Authority does not have the power to advise companies on depositing amounts voluntarily.