Tax authorities to scan GST transition credit claim of 162 companies

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Economy, Business Updates, Corporate Affairs, Income Tax,e-Filing- Individuals, Firms, Companies | 0

As many as 162 companies that have claimed GST transitional credit of over Rs. 1 crore are under the scanner of tax authorities who would verify whether the claims are eligible.

In the transitional credit form TRAN–1 filed by taxpayers along with their maiden returns for July, businesses have claimed credit of over Rs. 65,000 crore for excise, service tax or VAT paid before the GST was rolled out from July 1.

In view of such huge claims, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in a letter to Chief Commissioners said that as per the GST law carry forward of transitional credit is permitted only when such credit is permissible under the law.

“The possibility of claiming ineligible credit due to mistake or confusion cannot be ruled out … It is desired that the claims of ITC credit of more than Rs. 1 crore may be verified in a time-bound manner,” CBEC said.

It asked the chief commissioners to send a report on the claims made by these 162 companies to the CBEC, which is the apex decision making body for indirect taxes, by September 20.

To ensure that only eligible credit is carried forward in the GST regime, the CBEC has asked field offices to match the credit claimed with closing balance in returns filed under the earlier law. They would also check if the credit is eligible under the GST laws.

Till last week, as many as 70 per cent of 59.57 lakh taxpayers had filed returns for July resulting in a maiden revenue of Rs. 95,000 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

However, out of this, the input tax credit (ITC) data for Central GST (CGST) claimed in TRAN–1 has shown that registered businesses have claimed over Rs. 65,000 crore as transitional credit.

The government had, in late August, come out with form TRAN–1 for businesses to claim credit for taxes paid on transition stock. Traders and retailers had 90 days time to file for claim. Also businesses have been allowed to revise the form once till October 31.

PwC India Partner and Leader (indirect tax) Pratik Jain said that the Rs. 65,000 crore amount looks high particularly given the fact that lot of large companies have not yet submitted TRAN–1.

Under the transition rules, traders and retailers are allowed to claim credit of 60 per cent of taxes paid earlier against the CGST or SGST dues where the tax rate exceeds 18 per cent. In cases where the GST rate is below 18 per cent, only 40 per cent deemed credit will be available against CGST and SGST dues.

Further, the government would also refund 100 per cent excise duty for goods costing above Rs. 25,000 and bearing a brand name of the manufacturer and are serially numbered like TV, fridge or car chassis.

To avail this, a manufacturer can issue a Credit Transfer Document (CTD) as evidence for excise payment on goods cleared before the introduction of GST to the dealer. The dealer availing credit using CTD would also have to maintain copies of all invoices relating to buying and selling from the manufacturer to the dealer, through intermediate dealers.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

CBEC plans strategy to bring more businesses in GST net

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Economy, Business Updates, Corporate Affairs, Income Tax,e-Filing- Individuals, Firms, Companies | 0

Tax officials are working out strategies to encourage more businesses to register for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and further increase the taxpayer base.

At present, there are about 90 lakh businesses registered to file returns and pay taxes under the new levy, which kicked in from July 1.

But, the Central Board of Excise and Customs will now also encourage small businesses and dealers, who may be exempt from registering for GST.

“We plan to increase awareness of even small businesses about the benefits of GST and why they should register,” said a senior official, pointing out that in the long run it will be beneficial to them as suppliers would only choose to buy from those businesses from where they can get input tax credit.

Further, in some cases tax officials may also verify whether businesses that were paying taxes earlier have registered for GST.

Officials believe that as the new tax system stabilises, more businesses will register under GST, taking the tax base to over one crore in the next one year, if not before.

At present, businesses with an annual turnover of up to ₹20 lakh (or ₹10 lakh in some States) are exempt from registering for GST.

Though the number of taxpayers registered with the GSTN is much higher than the original estimate of about 80 lakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, at the recent Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, urged the Centre and State tax officials to further expand the tax base under GST.

“To enable all traders to take maximum benefit of GST, we should work towards ensuring that all traders, including even relatively smaller traders with a turnover below ₹20 lakh, should register with the GST system,” he had said, asking officials to further increase the taxpayer base.

The issue was also then followed up by Prime Minister’s Office. Also Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, at a recent video-conferencing meeting with Centre and State tax officials, assessed the roll out of the new levy and measures to increase the tax base.

Source: The Hindu Business line

World Bank accepts many of Modi govt’s reform claims, big thumbs-up likely next month

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Cross Border Transactions, M&As, Joint Ventures, Economy, Business Updates, Corporate Affairs, Income Tax,e-Filing- Individuals, Firms, Companies | 0

The government expects a double-digit improvement in India’s rank in the global index on ease of doing business, likely to be announced by the World Bank next month.

A senior official told ET that the World Bank had shared its feedback, stating that it had accepted many of the reforms claimed by the government. Last year, India’s rank had improved by just one spot to 130 among 190 countries.

“The World Bank has acknowledged around 20 reforms among many more mentioned by us in response to their study … The overall ranking will depend on how other countries have performed, but we should come close to the 100 mark,” the official said.

The World Bank had recently finished gathering feedback from users for its Doing Business Report. The cut-off date for implementing reforms for the study was June 1. Reforms implemented thereafter will not be counted for this year’s ranking.

Reforms such as GST have not been taken into account as the impact is yet to be felt by users. But India is expecting these to reflect in next year’s report and significantly boost the country’s position.

India had showed one of its poorest performances on the parameter of ‘Paying Taxes’ last time, ranking 172 among the countries surveyed for the report. That, along with an equally lower position in ‘Enforcing Contracts’, landed India at the 130th spot, falling behind countries such as Mexico (38), Russia (51) and Pakistan (138). The ranking considers business environment in Delhi and Mumbai.

Over the past few months, the government has taken up concerns about not getting due credit for its reform drive with the World Bank. While responding to the survey this year, the government flagged such issues citing examples of reforms undertaken for enforcing contracts, starting business and issuing construction permits, among other things.

The government also cited provisions in the existing legal framework that deal effectively with the issue of enforcing contracts.

ET View: Push legal reforms
The way ahead is to push reforms. India fares poorly, for example, in enforcing contracts. We need judicial reforms to drastically reduce legal delays. So, even if states improve lower courts, disputes could end up in the higher judiciary and the reform lies with the Centre. The Department of Justice should drive the reforms. The need is also to enhance transparency in funding of political parties. It will weed out corruption that will automatically improve ease of doing business.

Read more at: The Economic Times

Filing Dates for GSTRs for July extended by a month to October 10

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Economy, Business Updates, Corporate Affairs, Income Tax,e-Filing- Individuals, Firms, Companies | 0
Recommendations made by the GST Council in the 21st meeting at Hyderabad on 9th September, 2017

 

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

09-September-2017 20:19 IST

 

The GST Council, in its 21st meeting held at Hyderabad on 9th September 2017, has recommended the following measures to facilitate taxpayers:

  1. a) In view of the difficulties being faced by taxpayers in filing returns, the following revised schedule has been approved:
Sl. No. Details / Return Tax Period Revised due date
1 GSTR-1 July, 2017 10-Oct-17
For registered persons with aggregate turnover of more than Rs. 100 crores, the due date shall be 3rd October 2017
2 GSTR-2 July, 2017 31-Oct-17
3 GSTR-3 July, 2017 10-Nov-17
4 GSTR-4 July-September, 2017 18-Oct-17 (no change)
Table-4 under GSTR-4 not to be filled for the quarter July-September 2017. Requirement of filing GSTR-4A for this quarter is dispensed with.
5 GSTR-6 July, 2017 13-Oct-17
Due dates for filing of the above mentioned returns for subsequent periods shall be notified at a later date.

b) GSTR-3B will continue to be filed for the months of August to December, 2017.

c) A registered person (whether migrated or new registrant), who could not opt for composition scheme, shall be given the option to avail composition till 30th September 2017 and such registered person shall be permitted to avail the benefit of composition scheme with effect from 1st October, 2017.

d) Presently, any person making inter-state taxable supplies is not eligible for threshold exemption of Rs. 20 lacs (Rs. 10 lacs in special category states except J & K) and is liable for registration. It has been decided to allow an exemption from registration to persons making inter-State taxable supplies of handicraft goods upto aggregate turnover of Rs. 20 lacs as long as the person has a Permanent Account Number (PAN) and the goods move under the cover of an e-way bill, irrespective of the value of the consignment.

e) Presently, a job worker making inter-State taxable supply of job work service is not eligible for threshold exemption of Rs. 20 lacs (Rs. 10 lacs in special category states except J & K) and is liable for registration.  It has been decided to exempt those job workers from obtaining registration who are making inter-State taxable supply of job work service to a registered person as long as the goods move under the cover of an e-way bill, irrespective of the value of the consignment. This exemption will not be available to job work in relation to jewellery, goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ wares as covered under Chapter 71 which do not require e-way bill.

f) FORM GST TRAN-1 can be revised once.

g) The due date for submission of FORM GST TRAN-1 has been extended by one month i.e. 31st October, 2017.

h) The registration for persons liable to deduct tax at source (TDS) and collect tax at source (TCS) will commence from 18th September 2017. However, the date from which TDS and TCS will be deducted or collected will be notified by the Council later.

The GST Council has decided to set up a committee consisting of officers from both the Centre and the States under the chairmanship of the Revenue Secretary to examine the issues related to exports.

The GST Council has also decided to constitute a Group of Ministers to monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced during GST implementation.

 

*****

Last date for filing of GST returns for July, Aug extended

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Economy, Business Updates, Corporate Affairs, Income Tax,e-Filing- Individuals, Firms, Companies | 0
Of the 59.57 lakh businesses, who should file return for July, 38.38 lakh had filed their GST returns.

Businesses will have more time to file the final GST returns as the government on Monday extended the last date for filing of sales and purchase data as well as payment of taxes for the months of July and August.

Now sales return or GSTR-1 for July will have to be filed by September 10 instead of September 5 earlier and purchase returns or GSTR-2 would be filed by September 25 instead of September 10 earlier.

 GSTR-3, which is the match of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2, will have to be filed by September 30, in place of September 15.

“GIC (GST Implementation Committee) decides to extend date of GSTR 1, GSTR 2 and GSTR 3 for the month of July to 10th, 25th and 30th September 2017, respectively,” the government said in a tweet.

With regard to August, the date for filing GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 has been extended to October 5, October 10 and October 15 from earlier September 20, September 25 and September 30, respectively.

The industry has been demanding an extension of the date of filing final GST returns in view of scores of invoices to be uploaded.

The government will shortly issue notification to extend the date of filing returns.

In the initial returns filed in form GSTR-3B, taxes worth Rs 92,283 crore were collected for July from just 64.42 per cent of the total taxpayer base.

Of the 59.57 lakh businesses, who should file return for July, as many as 38.38 lakh taxpayers accounting for 64.42 per cent of the total businesses who had registered in July had filed their GST returns.

Through a notification last week, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) had waived fee for delayed filing of GSTR-3B and had allowed businesses to correct errors in the initial return form while filing the final returns.

It also said entities who had not filed GSTR-3B can file the final returns in GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 and pay taxes.

Souce: The Tribune India

1% of expected invoices uploaded to GSTN

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Economy, Business Updates, Corporate Affairs, Income Tax,e-Filing- Individuals, Firms, Companies | 0
There are all indications of a last-minute scramble near Sept 5 deadline and a clamour for extension

About 1% of the expected goods and services tax invoices had been uploaded on the GST Network more than a month after the facility opened, suggesting a last-minute scramble near the September 5 deadline and a clamour for an extension.

 

Only 4.4 million invoices have been uploaded as part of the GSTR 1 return filing, a facility that became operational on July 25.

 

“At least 440 million invoices should have been uploaded. The facility is open for 38 days, but only 4.4 million invoices have been uploaded. In last-minute filing, they will commit errors and the system will not accept the return,” said a GSTN official. Taxpayers would then seek an extension, he added.

 

“We will consider extending the deadline if people face genuine difficulties in filing GSTR 1,” said another official.

 

The last date to file provisional return GSTR 3B was extended from August 20 to August 25 after taxpayers faced difficulties in filing.

 

So far, 39.7 million returns have been filed by the 5.95 million entities registered for the GST in July, excluding those under the composition scheme. Based on this, 20-25% of those registered have not filed tax returns.

 

Experts pointed out taxpayers were grappling with GSTR 3B, the self-declaration form, for the first two months. This did not give them enough time to upload invoices, they added.

 

“People were busy filing GSTR 3B. They will start uploading invoices now,” said MS Mani of Deloitte.

 

Besides, the GSTN does not allow rectification or modification in returns submitted but not filed, making it a better option to wait. “In some cases, punching errors have increased the tax liability of assessees by crores of rupees, resulting in significantly high cash flows because the returns cannot be submitted without paying tax,” said Pratik Jain of PwC India.

 

He added the deadline for GSTR 2 of July was September 10, 2017, however, the offline utility was not yet available on the portal. In addition, there is an issue with the GSTN recognising existing SEZ units that migrated to the GST.

 

Companies were also grappling with filing input tax credit for pre-GST stocks with the offline utility tool unavailable. The government is expected to allow rectification of returns filed to claim credit.

 

With the offline utility for GST TRAN 1 form not available, companies faced difficulty in keying in the details. The lack of a provision for rectification of transitional credit claims may mean companies losing credit.

 

“In many cases, taxpayers had paid tax in cash. Till date, the credits of such cash payments are not reflected in the electronic cash ledger and the payments are shown as pending for banks’ confirmation,” Jain said.

GST relief

 

The government on the recommendation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Friday waived the late fees for the GSTR 3B returns for July, filed after the due date. The announcement comes amid concerns raised over difficulties faced by the industry in filing returns.

 

The Council waived the late fees of Rs 200 (Rs100  each for State GST and central GST) for returns filed after August 25, the deadline.

 

“The Central Government, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby waives the late fee payable under section 47 of the said Act, for all registered persons who failed to furnish the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the month of July, 2017 by the due date,” said the notification.

 

Source: Business Standard

July GST collections of Rs 92,000 crore exceeded target: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

by | posted in: Corporate & Business Advisory Services, Corporate Updates, Cross Border Transactions, M&As, Joint Ventures | 0
July GST receipts touch Rs 92,200 cr: Jaitley

Goods and services tax (GST) collections have exceeded estimates in the first month of the landmark levy’s rollout despite a significant number of assessees not having filed returns yet.

“We seem to be comfortable… The redline has been crossed in the first month itself,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said at his briefing on the first set of data on tax collections on Tuesday.

“Not many had thought that the redline would be crossed in the first month itself.” GST, which replaced multiple state and central levies, took effect on July 1.

The total collection under GST for July is pegged at Rs 92,283 crore. Extrapolating Budget targets, the central government’s July tax revenue should be Rs 48,000 crore and that of states Rs 43,000 crore, adding up to Rs 91,000 crore, Jaitley said.“We have exceeded the target,” he said, adding that even after the compensation cess is excluded, the target will still be surpassed when all taxpayers file returns. The last date for payment of tax for the month of July was August 25 and for those seeking transitional credit for taxes paid in the pre-GST era, the deadline was August 28.

Of the total, central GST accounted for Rs 14,894 crore, state GST for Rs 22,722 crore and integrated GST for Rs 47,469 crore, which includes Rs 20,964 crore on imports. IGST is levied on inter-state movement of goods and imports and is equal to CGST and SGST.

The compensation cess amounts to Rs 7,198 crore, of which Rs 599 crore is that on imports.

Jaitley said the total number of taxpayers having to file returns for July stood at 5.96 million if those that registered in August and those opting for the composition scheme were excluded. Of these, the minister said, 3.84 million returns have been filed — 64.42% of the total. This suggests that by the time all returns are filed, the tax kitty could swell further.

IGST will be allocated between CGST and SGST to the extent it has been used for payment of either of them. This allocation will be based on the cross-utilisation report to be received from the GST Network (GSTN), the technological backbone of the system.

STATE COMPENSATION
Exact revenue figures of the Centre and individual states would be known after this exercise, which will be conducted before the end of month. Jaitley said it will have to be seen if any specific state needs to be compensated. The tax collection number would “somewhat increase” with greater compliance, he added.Of the total 7.23 million taxpayers, 5.85 million have fully migrated to GSTN, while 1.38 million are yet to complete procedural formalities. The number of new taxpayers that registered with GSTN up to August 29 was 1.883 million.

“On the face of it, collection of over Rs 92,000 crore in the first month looks quite encouraging, given the fact that GST is still stabilising,” said Pratik Jain, partner and leader, indirect tax, PwC.“It is also to be noted that only 64% of registered dealers have actually done the compliances and therefore the actual collection could go up in next few days. Also, a large component of IGST collected on imports might be used as an offset in coming months and some amount of GST collected would also be given as a refund to exporters. Therefore, while initial trend shows healthy collection, the real picture would emerge over next couple of months.” MS Mani, senior director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, echoed this sentiment.

“The 65% compliance achieved in the first month of GST accompanied with the collection of Rs 92,000 crore is a very good beginning and both the compliance and collections are expected to show a significant upsurge in the coming months,” he said.