The 38th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council had met under the Chairmanship of the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman recently. The meeting has been also attended by the Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur along with the Finance Ministers of States and UTs and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance.
A presentation has been made to the 38th GST Council relating to the issue of revenue, GST rate structure as well as compensation requirements of the States. Before the presentation was made, the Convenor of GoM on revenue growth Sushil Kumar Modi, Dy CM (Bihar) had made opening remarks concerning the revenue position as well as a future roadmap. The presentation made afterward was based on dialogues in the Committee of officers of State as well as the Centre on revenue increase.
A positive discussion has been conducted followed the presentation which covered a wide range of subjects for example measures for encouraging voluntary compliance, increasing the tax base, measures towards improving return filing and tax collection as well as rate rationalization. Automation measures like e-invoice, new return system; QR code on bills have also been discussed at the meeting. In order to exchange knowledge relating to the best practices of tax administration, State of UP and UT of Jammu and Kashmir made a presentation on their effort towards improving GST collection, by means of in the recent past they have presented a healthy growth in compliance.
GST Council provided necessary guidance on further analysis on the subject of exemption and concession impact analysis, tax base analysis, sensitivity analysis as well as compliance measures which are required to keep pace with revenue requirements. The Council also had directed for expeditious application of IT and other initiatives.
Apart from the above-mentioned points, the GST Council had suggested the following:
1. Grievance Redressal Committees (GRC) shall be established at Zonal and State level with both the officers of CGST as well as SGST and includes executives of trade and industry and additional stakeholders of GST (i.e., GST practitioners and GSTN, etc.). These committees would deal with the grievances of the specific or general nature of taxpayers at the Zonal/ State level.
2. The due date for annual return in FORM GSTR-9, as well as reconciliation statement in FORM GSTR-9C for Financial Year 2017-18, shall be extended to 31st January 2020.
3. Following measures shall be taken in order to improve the filing of FORM GSTR-1:
ii. late fee waiver to be provided to all taxpayers regarding all pending FORM GSTR-1 from July 2017 to November 2019, if the same has been filed by 10th January 2020.
iii. E-way bill for taxpayers who did not file their FORM GSTR-1 for two tax periods would be blocked.
4. Input tax credit towards the recipient with respect to invoices or debit notes that are not reflected in the FORM GSTR-2A would be restricted to 10% of the eligible credit available relating to invoices or debit notes reflected in the FORM GSTR-2A.
5. In order to check the risk of fake invoices, suitable measures shall be taken for blocking of deceitfully availed input tax credit in some situations.
6. A Standard Operating Procedure for tax officers shall also be issued relating to the action that would be taken in matters of non-filing of FORM GSTR 3B returns.
7. The due date of filing GST returns for the month of November 2019 shall be extended with regard to a few North Eastern States.
8. The Council also sanctioned numerous law amendments which would be introduced in Budget 2020.
eStartIndia is the professional tech-based online legal services that help the clients to simplify the procedures of all kinds of registration, implementation, tax concerns and any other legal compliances and services related to the business in India.
Author:
Leave a Comment
Previous Comments