GOODS AND SERVICES TAX (GST)

16.01.2020

1,200 exporters seeking GST refunds missing - Role Of 50 Customs Brokers Under Tax Dept Scanner.

New Delhi: A probe by goods and services tax (GST) authorities has revealed that nearly 1,200 exporters, who had made refund claims of Rs 350 crore, were untraceable. The latest findings indicated that the problem of bogus and fraudulent claims and refunds may be more widespread than earlier estimated, resulting in massive leakages.

During the last five months, over 800 entities have been prevented from exporting overvalued merchandise of Rs 1,500 crore to claim fake IGST with refunds suspended in these cases, said sources.

The authorities suspect that a section of the customs broker community may be connected with these frauds, involving fictitious entities, existing only in virtual space, through identity thefts with fake and morphed documents. The role of 50-odd brokers is under the scanner as they were found to have dealt with exporters who are now untraceable. As part read more »

16.01.2020

GST messy, disruptive in short run: Fin panel member.

Kolkata: Member of 15th Finance Commission and former chief economic adviser to the Centre, Ashok Lahiri, has slammed the goods and services tax (GST) as it could be “messy and disruptive in the short run”. He has also indicated that the economy needs some corrective action.

“While GST will prove to be a game-changing reform over medium to long term, in the short run, it has proved to be messy and disruptive and poor in revenue performance,” he said while speaking at a conclave organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I).

Lahiri pointed out that the GST Network (GSTN) was not fully ready when the new tax regime was launched in July 2017. This has assumed significance because some of these points are often raised in the last two years by Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, who used read more »

16.01.2020

AI unable to move engine due to Rs.100cr GST dues - Airline Fails To Generate E-Way Bill For Several Days.

New Delhi: The last mile is always the hardest and the situation is no different for Air India as it awaits the outcome of the government’s second move to sell it off. The airline, which is yet to pay December salary, has almost completely run out of funds and is now struggling to keep flying in the absence of equity infusion this fiscal.

Sample this: One of AI’s Airbus has been grounded in Vadodara for almost a week as it requires an engine replacement. The Maharaja has a spare engine for this aircraft in Delhi but is unable to send it as it can’t raise the e-way bill because of GST dues. “Our GST dues are about Rs 100 crore and because of that the paperwork required to send the engine to Vadodara is not being done,” said a senior official.

read more »

08.01.2020

Govt may link GST refund to remittance for risky exporters - Plans Standard Operating Procedure To Fix Fraudulent Claims.

New Delhi: The government is looking at linking the refund of goods and services tax (GST) to “risky and new” exporters with remittance of foreign exchange apart from accessing bank transaction details as part of an exercise to plug revenue leakage.

The issues were discussed at a meeting of top tax officers with revenue secretary A B Pandey on Tuesday, where it was decided to put in place a standard operating procedure (SOP) to fix fraudulent refund claims, including those related to sectors where the final product has higher GST than inputs and raw materials. A committee of state and central officers has been tasked with finalising the SOP within a week so that it can be implemented by the end of the month.

To ensure better scrutiny of data, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will enter read more »

02.01.2020

GST collections top Rs. 1L cr 2 mths in row - Need More Effort To Meet Target: Officials.

New Delhi: Goods and services tax (GST) collections topped Rs 1 lakh crore for the second straight month as the mop-up on domestic sales grew over 20%, more than offsetting the decline due to weak imports.

Latest data released by the finance ministry pegged GST collections at over Rs 1.03 lakh crore during December (for sales in November) with the Centre’s kitty swelling 21.4%, while states saw a 19.3% expansion in their share. But an almost 10% drop in integrated GST on imports, indicating that shipments into the country declined during November, resulted in the overall GST receipts being 8.9% higher.

Tax officials will, however, need to drive harder in the last quarter of the financial year to meet the target set for the fiscal. During a meeting, revenue secretary had set a target of Rs 1.1 lakh crore collections for read more »

02.01.2020

GST evaders set to face stricter scans - Officials Plan To Tally Bank A/cs With Filings.

New Delhi: Goods and services tax (GST) authorities are going to seek bank account details of businesses to tally with their filings, apart from initiating other measures, as part of fresh efforts to tighten the noose around evaders or those misusing and gaming the system.

The revenue department will meet officials from central and state GST wings as well as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Central Board of Direct Taxes next. The idea is to improve upon the red flags, which have helped the government improve compliance, resulting in filing of the GSTR-3B forms rising over 12% to 81 lakh returns by the December 20 deadline.

“Through e-way bills and FASTag, we will be able to check if goods have actually moved. Data from banks will help us check if genuine transactions have taken place or bogus details have read more »

31.12.2019

PENDING DUES - Govt clears GST refunds of Rs. 1.1 lakh cr to exporters.

New Delhi: The government on Monday said that it has cleared goods and services tax (GST) refunds of over Rs 1.1 lakh crore to more than 83,500 exporters as part of a move to clear long-pending arrears.

“As of now, refunds of only Rs 3,604 crore are pending with customs and out of about 1.8 lakh exporters, 6,421 exporters (about 3.4%), including some ‘star exporters’, have been identified as risky and hence, red flagged. Even some of the ‘star exporters’ are not traceable at the addresses given by them,” the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said.

For nearly two-and-a-half years, CBIC has been erratic in refunding integrated GST with officials often accused of holding up money that rightfully belonged to exporters. While the government has sought to tone up the administration, it wants to make it clear that read more »

19.12.2019

Compensation to states a major friction point.

New Delhi: Compensation to states that are unable to register over 14% increase in GST collections during the year emerged as a key source of friction between the Centre and Opposition-ruled states with some of them claiming that the Union government had indicated that it may not have sufficient resources to compensate states.

West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra told reporters that the Centre’s estimate suggested that it may not be able to compensate states after February. While finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre was committed to cooperative federalism, Opposition-ruled states such as Kerala and Punjab suggested that there was no categorical assurance on payment of compensation.

“There is no gap within the Council. I don’t know if it exists anywhere. In the Council, and in the Rajya Sabha, I have explained in detail about how we remain committed read more »

19.12.2019

Council votes for first time, to levy 28% GST on lotteries.

New Delhi: For the first time in its history, the GST Council on Wednesday resorted to voting to decide on an issue. Following a 21-7 vote, the panel of ministers, headed by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, settled for a 28% levy on all lotteries, while opting to study the need for revenue augmentation in detail.

“Every attempt was made to keep the tradition alive... Eventually, the Council was reminded that rules allow and tradition is not part of the rule book,” Sitharaman told reporters, while suggesting that one member insisted on a vote.

The other decisions were, however, taken through consensus, including the decision to exempt upfront amount for long-term lease of industrial or financial infrastructure plots by an entity with 20% or more government ownership. Currently, the exemption is available to an entity with majority government ownership. While this read more »

18.12.2019

Collect Rs. 1.1L cr GST a month, tax officials told.

Facing a shortfall in tax mop-up, the Centre on Tuesday asked officials to launch an exercise to step up collections and told the GST wing to collect Rs 4.55 lakh crore in the remaining four months. Revenue secretary A B Pandey told officers that CBIC should seek to collect Rs 1.1 lakh crore every month for three months and Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the fourth. The move comes a day before the states meet the Centre for the GST Council meeting.

TRADERS GET GOVT HELP

GST centres to help file returns

New Delhi: With GST compliance remaining a big irritant for small businesses, the finance ministry is looking to set up facilitation centres on the lines of Aadhaar Seva Kendras to help traders and micro, small and medium enterprises file returns.

The ministry is read more »