The government is finalising a major GST overhaul with automated refunds, pre-filled returns, and analytics-based scrutiny to simplify compliance and boost liquidity for MSMEs.
To ensure a glitch-free rollout of the next-generation GST with reduced rates and lesser slabs, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired three separate meetings to assess GSTN's preparedness and the time it would take to implement technological changes required in the software systems.
GST Network on Saturday said beginning the July tax period, GST taxpayers will not be able to file monthly and annual GST returns after three years of the original filing due date. The July 2025 tax period means taxpayers will file
Businesses across the country may soon be required to issue electronic invoices, or e-invoices, directly to consumers for the sale of goods and services. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its forthcoming meeting on Monday, is expected to discuss extending the e-invoicing mandate to cover business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. Currently, e-invoicing is compulsory for businesses with a turnover of Rs 5 crore and above, but only for their business-to-business (B2B) transactions.
The government plans to implement the single rate GST, which would subsume central excise, service tax and other local levies, from April 1, 2016
Several opposition ruled states expressed concern over Centre's decision to allow enforcement directorate (ED) to share information with GST Network, with finance minister of AAP-ruled Punjab Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday saying it amounts to 'tax terrorism' and scaring small business. The finance ministry, through a notification, brought in an amendment to the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, as per which GSTN, which handles the technology backbone of Goods and Services Tax, has been included in the list of entities with which ED will share information. At the 50th GST Council meeting on Tuesday, Aam-Aadmi Party ruled Delhi and Punjab voiced concerns over the notification and demanded a discussion.
Six years after the rollout of the biggest indirect tax reform in India, Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue of Rs 1.5 lakh crore every month has become a new normal and tax officers are focusing on dealing with fraudsters who are adopting newer modus operandi to game the system, causing loss to the exchequer. To apprehend black sheep, who operate as syndicates and create fake entities on the basis of forged documents to claim input tax credit (ITC), tax officers have started using data analytics, artifical intelligence and machine learning aiming to curb evasion, which was over Rs 3 lakh crore since inception of GST. It was over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23. Thinktank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the most critical pending GST reform is upgradation of GST Network to prevent fake supplies and fraudulent claims of Input Tax Credit (ITC).
The GST revenues for August 2023 have shown a growth of 11 per cent year on year due to increased compliance and less evasion, Revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra said on Friday. The collection from Goods and Services Tax (GST) was Rs 1,43,612 crore in August 2022. "Roughly numbers are in the range of 11 per cent year on year growth as in earlier months," Malhotra told reporters.
No longer a discretion of the tax administrator, the audit of returns filed by taxpayers is now based on a selection by algorithms, notes Tarun Bajaj.
As taxpayers face technical glitch on the GST portal, the government on Tuesday said it is considering extending the April tax payment deadline and has directed Infosys for early resolution of the problem. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said a technical glitch has been reported by Infosys in generation of April 2022 GSTR-2B and auto-population of GSTR-3B on portal. "Infosys has been directed by Govt for early resolution. Technical team is working to provide GSTR-2B & correct auto-populated GSTR-3B at the earliest," the CBIC tweeted.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked Infosys and its chairman Nandan Nilekani to fix technical glitches being encountered on the income tax department's new e-filing website, after users flooded her Twitter timeline with complaints. Infosys was in 2019 awarded a contract to develop the next-generation income tax filing system to reduce processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds. The portal went live Monday evening.
The finance ministry has asked Infosys to provide within 15 days a plan for quick resolution of glitches on the GSTN portal, as it took strong note of the "unresolved" problems and "tardy" progress made over the last two years on multiple issues faced by taxpayers in filing returns. On Saturday, the revenue secretary A B P Pandey held a meeting with top Infosys officials on the persistent glitches seen on the GST network, and decided to ask Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani to make an urgent presentation before the GST Council on March 14.
A day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman flagged technical glitches on the income tax department's new e-filing website, IT major Infosys said it expects the system to stabilise in the course of this week. On Tuesday, Sitharaman had asked Infosys and its chairman Nandan Nilekani to fix technical glitches being encountered on the income tax department's new e-filing website, after users flooded her Twitter timeline with complaints.
'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.'
'We revolutionised the system in a manner so that the chances of leakage will be much lower than it was in the beginning.'
After the finance minister directed public sector banks to join the account aggregator (AA) ecosystem, 5-6 major ones, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda are expected to go live by July-end. Sahmati, an industry alliance for the AA ecosystem, has been working with PSU banks to get them onboarded for quite some time now. So far, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have gone live on the AA ecosystem. While Union Bank has been live for a while, PNB went live earlier this month.
The confidence that GST Network is capable of handling the returns, payments, reconciliation, refunds, etc., has been badly shaken.
It is after the GST Network tallies invoice details with shipping bills that the refund claims can be processed. So, the refund could be delayed by over a month.
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
E-way bill generation, which is related to paying Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a key high-frequency indicator of economic activity, may have fallen to a five-month low in April as more cities experience lockdowns due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. In April e-way bill generation may decline to 55-58 million, which is the lowest since at least November. On the higher side, it is a 17 per cent decline over March.
GSTN said those who do not want to give their Aadhaar numbers would have to undergo physical verification.
'There is something fundamentally wrong with the GST -- whether be it the rates, compliance, or the GST Network itself.'
Close to 202,000 new entities have registered under the GST Network
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.
The GST rate on mobile phones will be hiked to 18 per cent while that on maintenance repair overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft will be lowered to 5 per cent with effect from April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. The GST rate on handmade and machine-made matchsticks has been rationalised to 12 per cent from 5 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.
As per the revised return filing timeline decided by the Council, for July, the sale returns will have to be filed by September 5 instead of August 10. Companies will have to file sale invoice for August with the GST Network by September 20 instead of September 10 earlier.
This meeting has led to the deferment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting by a day.
Measures that quickly boost demand and increase employment are needed to push up growth. Moreover, without announcing new planss, the government should strengthen schemes such as PM KISAN, MNREGA and programmes to build rural roads.
The GoM will meet on Saturday to finalise single-stage, simplified, return filing under the GST; report will be placed before GST Council on March 10.
It shows that states would require a compensation to the tune of at least Rs 1.67 trillion in 2024-25, as none of them would be able to achieve a 14 per cent growth every year.
To improve compliance, govt may introduce lottery reward for filing GST. The Consumer Welfare Fund, where anti-profiteering proceeds are deposited, will be used to reward the lucky winners on monthly and annual bases. The prize money, yet to be fixed, may run into several lakhs of rupees for the annual draw, and about Rs 50,000 for monthly draws.
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.
Businesses need to get on board in 15 days, ahead of indirect tax roll-out
E-invoicing would be implemented on a voluntary basis by those having an annual turnover of above Rs 500 crore from January 1.
GSTN is planning a disaster recovery drill and hence services will not be available for 12 hours, between 9am and 9pm, on July 1, and has requested the taxpayers to plan GST-related activities on the portal accordingly.
As per norms, the returns have to be filed online on www.aces.gov.in.
Despite a steady collection rate, the government faces a steep Budget target of Rs 6.1 trillion for CGST for 2019-20.
With audits and greater emphasis on anti-evasion measures, more tax demands will lead to more litigation. So, it is a bit early to start celebrating. GST is still work in progress.
The immediate concern for all companies is to prepare themselves - and their vendors and suppliers - for the new GST return filing mechanism, being test piloted from April 1.
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