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GST: Collections increase to Rs 95,610 crore in May

GST: Collections increase to Rs 95,610 crore in May

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Revenue collections for May from the goods and services tax (GST) have come in at Rs 95,610 crore, of which Rs 31,645 crore will flow into central kitty and Rs 36,683 crore will go to the states.

Collections for April were Rs 94,016 crore while theGST mopup edges closer to Rs 1 lakh crore average for the last fiscal stood at just below Rs 90,000 crore.

The higher-than-average mop-up has been attributed to the effectiveness of the e-way bill system and other enforcement action. Nonetheless, finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia cautioned that the trend was still below Rs 1 lakh crore. Responding to the industry request that the list of items in the 28% list be pruned, Adhia pointed out it was lower than the Rs 50,000 crore per month required to meet the 2018-19 budgetary target.

Speaking at the one-year-of-GST celebrations via video conferencing, Arun Jaitley, who ushered in GST as finance minister, said GST’s impact was already visible in direct tax collections; gross advance tax collections for personal income tax had grown by 44% y-o-y for the April-June period while the corresponding rise for corporate income tax was 17%. “Indirect tax collections for the GST basket of commodities have grown by 11.2% while the buoyancy is at 1.2, which is unheard of for indirect taxes,” he said.

He recounted the trajectory of the GST Council and its decision-making in 27 meetings over the last year. Jaitley said GST had ensured that consumers could now see all the taxes levied on any item unlike earlier when excise tax and applicable cess were always hidden. “The items currently in the 28% slab used to be taxes at 31% pre-GST due to cascading effect but the same was not apparent to consumers,” he said.

Speaking at the celebrations, finance minister Piyush Goyal said the April tax collections of Rs 94,016 crore was music to his ears as historically only about 7% of annual revenues were collected in the first month of the fiscal. “The total collections for the Centre and states could go up to Rs 13 lakh crore for FY 19,” Goyal said. He currently holds charge of the finance ministry in the absence of Arun Jaitley.

Goyal also said GST could be further simplified by allowing composition dealers to file annual return instead of every quarter as is the current practice. Businesses involved in manufacturing and trade with an annual revenue of less than `1.5 crore can opt for a low-compliance regime under GST, which requires payment of only 1% of sales as tax and filing returns quarterly.

Goyal reiterated the need to report businesses that were not issuing bills to consumers and said the government will set up a system for lodging such complaints. “While the majority of traders want to conduct business honestly, some indulge in evading taxes. This gives the dishonest taxpayers a cost advantage which pushes otherwise honest taxpayers to also adopt corrupt practices to remain competitive,” he said.

Representing the businesses, industry association representatives said they hoped that the items currently outside GST — alcohol, real estate, petroleum product and electricity — would be brought in soon as it would rein in inflation. PHD Chambers president Anil Khitai appealed to the industry to shun the practice of using fake invoices for claiming input tax credit. He also urged the finance ministry to remove applicability of GST on exporters as exporters didn’t pay excise in the pre-GST era.

Source :  Financial Express
GST Return Filing: Why are central staff lagging states, asks Union Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia

GST Return Filing: Why are central staff lagging states, asks Union Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia

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With the GST Network, the IT backbone for the goods and services tax (GST), turning out to be a repository of centralised data on taxpayer compliance, a facility that was not available in the previous regime, the performance of tax authorities has come into sharper focus. After reviewing the GSTN data,GST: Hasmukh Adhia Union finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia has recently written to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), lamenting that “the performance of central government officers in all states except Arunachal Pradesh is lower than the state government officers in return filing %age for the tax period April (up to 26th May 2018)”. Adhia asked the CBIC to review the performance of central government officers and to make sure that their performance is superior to those of state governments.

The finance secretary’s directive is seen against the backdrop of lower-than-expected buoyancy in GST collections. The number of filers improved from 63% of the taxpayer base in February to 69% in March and 72% in April, but the revenue is not growing fast enough to meet the Centre’s budget targets and most states still need compensation. The GST revenue for April (collected in May) came in at Rs 94,016 crore, 4.5% higher than the monthly average achieved in the last fiscal year. The central GST (CGST) collected for April was Rs 28,797 crore; assuming half the balance integrated GST collected for the month also goes to the Centre’s kitty, the CGST collection for the month may eventually go up to Rs 40,800 crore. However, even this figure is a fifth short of the budget estimate for CGST of Rs 50,325 core per month. As for state GST, Rs 34,020 crore was collected for April.

The Union finance ministry compared the performance of tax officials on four criteria: Percentage of return filing in April, revenue collection growth in April over an average of January and February, refunds sanctioned as a percentage of claims and registrations as a percentage of applications. Last year, the GST Council arrived at a formula for sharing of GST jurisdiction between the Centre and the states. According to this, 90% of taxpayers with annual revenue below Rs 1.5 crore come under the state government’s jurisdiction while 10% of them are with the central government. The remaining taxpayers are equally divided between the Centre and states.

An Indian Revenue Service official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that one of the reasons for the poor performance of the Centre’s staff could be that in several states, the state-level officials had divided the taxpayer pool in a manner that those which are conventionally more compliant are with them.

However, several state government officials refuted this while speaking with FE. One official said that state officials have traditionally been more hands-on with taxpayers even in the previous tax regime than their counterparts at the Centre. For instance, he said, even a senior state official would not hesitate to call a non-compliant taxpayer and offer assistance in resolving issues while a central official might be content with sending notices to such assessees. The latter approach doesn’t always yield the desired results in nudging dealers to be more compliant, another official added.

“Any transaction under GST has a central and state component. While the Centre is assured of central GST component, the state GST component could accrue to a different state if the dealer doesn’t report the transaction properly. This ensures that state officials are more vigilant and scrutinise invoices closely,” a third official said, explaining the performance gap.

In his letter to the CBIC, Adhia also wrote that it was a mystery that the rate of refunds sanctioned could be more than claims as shown in cases of Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Tamil Nadu.

XaTTaX: Your automated E-Way bill compliance is just a click away!

Source :  Financial Express

GST collection in May falls to Rs 94,016 crore

GST collection in May falls to Rs 94,016 crore

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The GST collection in the month of May fell from Rs 1.03 lakh crore recorded in April to Rs 94,016 crore. However, the May GST collection was higher than the monthly average of Rs 89,885 crore of the fiscal year 2017-18. GST Collection: Govt collects Rs 65,000 cr GSTAnalysts say that the lower collection for May as compared with previous month was expected as in the last month of the financial year (March), people try to pay arrears, leading to higher revenue collection. Moreover, the trend also suggests that in April, the tax collection is usually lower than other months

“For the month of April, the collection of Rs 94,016 crore is a good collection. But now the collection should really go up to Rs 1 lakh crore for the government to be in a good spot,” Pratik Jain of PwC told CNBC-TV18. The government’s target for FY18-19 puts an average collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore. Pratik Jain said that the GST collection in May was a 5% jump from monthly average, however, it seemed that the roll-out of E-way bill did not bring quite the result the government was expecting.

Inter-state E-way bill was launched from April 1, while intra-state full launch will be from July 3. E-way bill was launched with the aim to curb tax evasion on the movement of goods in the country. Of the total collection, CGST is Rs 15,866crore, SGST is Rs 21,691 crore, IGST is Rs 49,120 crore, the Finance Ministry said.

Ease Your GST Return Filing & Invoice with XaTTaX  GST Software

Source: Live Mint
27th GST Council Meet: Filing Process Gets Simpler, File Only One Return In A Month.

27th GST Council Meet: Filing Process Gets Simpler, File Only One Return In A Month.

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27th GST Council Meet Outcome: Five Things To Know

gst council meeting
1. Monthly Return: GST Taxpayers excluding a few exceptions like composition dealer shall file one monthly return. Return filing dates shall be staggered based on the turnover of the registered person to manage load on the IT system. Composition dealers and dealers having nil transaction shall have facility to file quarterly return.

2. Unidirectional Flow of invoices: There shall be unidirectional flow of invoices uploaded on GST Network by the seller on anytime basis during the month which would be the valid document to avail input tax credit by the buyer. Buyer would also be able to continuously see the uploaded invoices during the month.

3. Simple Return design and easy IT interface: The B2B dealers will have to fill invoice-wise details of the outward supply made by them, based on which the system will automatically calculate his tax liability. The input tax credit will be calculated automatically by the system based on invoices uploaded by his sellers. Taxpayer shall be also given user friendly IT interface and offline IT tool to upload the invoices.

4: Proposal of concession on digital transactions: Keeping in view the need to move towards a less cash economy, the Council has discussed in detail the proposal of a concession of 2% in GST rate (where the GST rate is 3% or more, 1% each from applicable CGST and SGST rates) on B2C supplies, for which payment is made through cheque or digital mode, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 100 per transaction, so as to incentivise promotion of digital payment.

The council has recommended for setting up of a Group of Ministers from State Governments to look into the proposal and make recommendations, before the next Council meeting, keeping in mind the views expressed in GST Council.

5. Cess on Sugar above 5% GST rate: The council deliberated over the imposition of cess on sugar over and above 5% GST and also over the reduction in GST rate on ethanol. Keeping in view the record production of sugar in the current sugar season, and consequent depressed sugar prices and build-up of sugarcane arrears, the Council discussed the issue of imposition of sugar cess and reduction in GST rate on ethanol in great detail. The council has recommended for setting up of a Group of Ministers from State Governments to look into the proposal and make recommendations, within two weeks, keeping in mind the views expressed in GST Council in this regard.

GST’s next phase: Anti-tax evasion

GST’s next phase: Anti-tax evasion

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After nationalization of rates in the first phase of GST, the new phase of goods and services tax is focusing on anti-tax evasion.

From taxmen cracking down on tax evaders last week to rolling out the Anti-tax evasion E-Way bill from 1 April, Anti-tax evasionthe government has signaled that it will no longer go easy on evaders after 9 months of the introduction of this tax (GST). It has also sought to hasten the process of engaging fraud analytics providers to crunch GST data to look for known and unknown patterns of tax evasion.

This comes at a time the govt. suspects massive tax evasion under this new indirect tax regime that was rolled out on 1 July.

It has through analyzing returns data available with the GSTN (GST Network) detected instances of understating the value of transactions through the collusion of buyers and sellers, use of the same email ID to obtain multiple registrations across states to evade tax and instances where taxes are collected from consumers but not paid to the tax authorities.

In a press conference on Monday, finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia also acknowledged the government’s focus on increasing compliance now that taxpayers have settled into the new tax regime. Adhia said taxmen will crack down on tax evaders and also start conducting checks soon on trucks to see if E-Way bill documents are in order.

Also read: GST E-Way Bill: Generation Process,Validity, Rules and Regulation

E-way bill is an electronic documentation of movement of goods to ensure that there is no under-reporting of transactions.

The government hopes that these steps will help in improving buoyancy of GST revenues that have stabilized in the range of Rs85,000-90,000 crore monthly.

Some of the other anti-evasion measures that are in the pipeline include matching of invoices of buyers and sellers and a reverse charge mechanism wherein a large registered buyer has to pay tax on behalf of the small unregistered seller.

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Govt making all efforts to make GST foolproof against evasion: Adhia

Govt making all efforts to make GST foolproof against evasion: Adhia

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‘GST changes game for tax evaders’: Finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia

Finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia today said government is making all efforts to make the GST regime “fullproof” with the help of technology to check all possibilities of tax evasion.

Addressing a state-level seminar on GST, the top finance ministry official said, “GST is an end-to-end IT-based tax system. We are making all efforts to make it full proof with the help of technology.

“A technology-based tax system will prevent tax evasion. We are also making efforts in the direction of making it more simple,” Adhia said.

Also read: GST: What happens if person files return but doesn’t make payment of taxes?

Stating the new taxation regime is more business friendly, he noted that a businessman doesn’t want to evade tax provided three things are according to his desire, which include appropriate tax calculation, tax should be reasonable, it protects his interests.

Citing the example of Chhattisgarh, he said credit for the successful rollout of GST in the state goes to businessmen of the state.

Also read: GST return simplification to end traders’ woes likely before March 31

There was situation of uncertainty and anxiety when GST was introduced on July 1 last but gradually all basic problems which had arisen during the initial stages were overcome. Strong political will coupled with efforts of the Central and state officials have led to the effective implementation of GST, he said.

In July 2017, the revenue shortfall of the state was 49 per cent but within seven months, this has come down gradually to 29 per cent, thanks to the GST, he said.

He also said, the state average of filing returns is 57 per cent while the national average is 67 per cent.

GST Ready Invoicing Software – Generate GST Compliant Invoice

Source :  Economic Times
‘GST changes game for tax evaders’: Finance secretary

‘GST changes game for tax evaders’: Finance secretary

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‘GST changes game for tax evaders’: Finance secretary

Finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Tuesday that goods and services tax (GST) will “change the game” for those who avoid to paying taxes. “When GST was introduced it was hailed as a gamechanging tax reform. Do you know what is game changing? It is an innovation which can spoil the games people were playing to avoid paying taxes,” Adhia told a gathering of exporters, while delivering his speech in Hindi. The rollout of GST has been seen as a measure to plug loopholes and ensure that businesses across the country start paying taxes. Using high-end return filing and matching system, the new tax regime makes it tough for tax evaders. Introduction of GST is also seen as the government’s overall strategy to nab evaders.

Adhia, who has played a key role in the implementation of the new tax reform measure, explained in detail to exporters how it will benefit them. “Leave aside the transition problems. I want to assure you that in the long term it (GST) will benefit exports.”

The finance secretary explained the reason behind delay of refund for exporters and how the government had responded swiftly to address the problem. He said wrong filing of returns along with technological problems had delayed the process.

Adhia also elaborated the benefit of GST for exporters. “Earlier some states would give VAT refunds after two-to-three years, some would never give. Plus there was no credit for 5% octroi if you were in Mumbai. Under the GST system being put in place to file one application, get one refund order and get one refund. This will ease life and will boost exports.”

He said once the system stabilises, exporters will get refund for Integrated GST (IGST) as soon as they file for it. Adhia said the government has devised a manual cum automatic way of filing refund. “This is an online system. Printout has to be submitted to jurisdictional officer.”

Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu said introduction of the new tax regime “would be the catalyst for spurring growth in the export sector. Lower duty on most of the items and reduction of cascading effect of various duties would lower the cost and make exports competitive”.

Source :  The Times of India
GST Council may fix single tax rate for similar product categories

GST Council may fix single tax rate for similar product categories

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How Businesses are overcoming the GST Filing Issues?

A week after Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia called for a complete overhauling of tax rates under GST, it has been reported that the government is working on aligning similar goods into one particular tax slab. Currently, there are some similar consumer products that are classified under different GST rates. For instance, there are two tax rates for syrup- 28 per cent on chocolate syrup, 18 per cent of sugar syrup. The government is reportedly working on removing this multiplicity of rates for similar products.

According to a report in Money Control, a committee of officers is currently doing the math as to what will be the revenue implications in case of shifting products into a lower tax slab. “The officials will present its recommendation to the GST Council in its next meeting on November 10 in Guwahati,” the website quoted an official as saying.

Also Read: Huge gap between GST returns, filing and eligible taxpayers: Survey reveals reasons why

Earlier this month, the Revenue Secretary had advocated for complete re-structuring of tax rates under the GST. He said: “There is a complete overhauling that is required. It is possible that some items in the same chapter are divided. There is a need for harmonisation of items chapter wise and wherever we find there is a big burden on small and medium businesses and on the common man, if we bring them down, there will be a better compliance.”

Revenue Secretary Adhia, however, said the overhauling would require some calculations by the fitment committee, which will decide which items need a rationalisation of rate under the GST. The GST Council has already cleared an approach paper for items to be considered for rationalisation but it is not binding and the council can always make deviation from the approach paper.

Also Read: Govt working on new consumer protection law: PM Narendra Modi

“We are very keen to do it as early as possible, it depends on how much time the fitment committee takes to work on it. They need data, calculate revenue loss. They need various comparisons. But harmonisation has to be done. A complete review has to be done,” he said, adding that the committee will bring its suggestions to the Council as early as possible. The GST Council is scheduled to meet for the 23rd time in Guwahati on November 10.

In the last couple of meetings, the GST Council reworked various provisions of the new tax regime. The turnover threshold for composition scheme, under which businesses can pay taxes at a nominal rate, was hiked to Rs 1 crore, from Rs 75 lakh earlier. Also small businesses up to Rs 1.50 crore turnover was allowed to file returns and pay taxes quarterly, as against monthly earlier.


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Source :  Business Today in
Items In 28% GST Rate Slab Needs To Be Pruned, Says Hasmukh Adhia

Items In 28% GST Rate Slab Needs To Be Pruned, Says Hasmukh Adhia

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GST:Hansmukh

The number of goods in the highest 28 per cent GST slab would be brought down and a committee of officers will calculate the revenue impact before going in for further reduction in tax rates, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today.

“It is required, the fitment of rates which has happened is mainly based on excise and VAT,” he said when asked if the GST Council is considering pruning of the number of items in 28 per cent tax bracket.

Goods and Services Tax (GST), rolled out from July 1, has subsumed over two dozen taxes and has transformed India into a single market for seamless flow of goods and services. All goods and services have been fitted in the four-tier GST rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.

Adhia said while fitting the goods and services in various tax bracket, the GST Council has taken into consideration only the excise duty and VAT rate applicable on those items prior to GST.

“There are industries where 95 per cent of production used to take place in MSME and all of them used to avail excise duty exemption. So that means the excise rate we have taken for that item is only theoretical in nature and actually we have done a substantial increase in the rate of that item.

“That way it is being pointed out that it is a theoretical rate which has been derived, there is a need for rationalisation. Instead of doing a piecemeal reduction here and there, we do need to look at the entire rate of 28 per cent,” Adhia said at a GST Townhall organised by CNBC TV18.

There is definitely a scope for rationalisation of rates but it will happen only after the fitment committee does a detailed calculations of its revenue impact.

“The fitment committee will have to look at how much revenue we got from this items from excise and VAT earlier before we agree to any further wholesale reduction of rates. If we find that revenue reduction is too much, we may have to do that in stages,” he said.

Adhia also said that in the last 30-40 days glitches faced by GST Network software has reduced and there would be no leniency shown on businesses for delayed filing of returns.

Asked if the government is planning to waive penalty for delayed filing of GST returns, Adhia said “it cannot be a consideration because the moment we say we will not take any penalty till March, the compliance rate will come down further. How can we say that file return whenever you want till March.”

Read: Government grappling to pinpoint reasons for low GST compliance

He said that any waiver, if at all is to be given, will be post facto. “It can’t be immediate. It is now absolutely essential that we bring discipline in businesses (for timely filing of returns)”.

As many as 55 lakh businesses had filed the initial GSTR-3B returns for July, the number was only 46 lakh who had filed final returns for the month.

Besides, 48 lakh businesses had filed initial GSTR-3B returns for August and till today morning 10 lakh businesses had filed 3B returns for September.

The government had earlier waived late fee for all taxpayers who could not file GSTR-3B for July within due date in view of glitches in GSTN portal.

With regard to bringing real estate within GST, Adhia said it would require that businesses can claim seamless credit of any taxes paid for a project.

“Now for that to happen, you will have to start taxing it from land itself. Land has to be part of GST. Now there are several issues connected with that. Issue of whether you want to put an extra GST on real estate while continuing with stamp duty. Stamp duty is a big source of income for state government,” he said.

Also Read: GST panel to meet MSME representatives in October end to ease tax rigour

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had last week said real estate is a sector where maximum amount of tax evasion and cash generation takes place and the GST Council in its next meeting on November 10 will discuss bringing it within the fold of GST.

A 12 per cent GST is levied on construction of a complex, building, civil structure or intended for sale to a buyer, wholly or partly. However, land and other immovable property have been exempted from the GST.


XaTTaX: Cloud and On-Premises Based GST Filing Software For India

Source: ET

Rs 8,000 cr released to states for GST related revenue shortfall: Revenue Secretary

Rs 8,000 cr released to states for GST related revenue shortfall: Revenue Secretary

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Hasmukh-Adhia-GST

There have been few national-level complaints over businesses tending to profiteer after the goods and services tax (GST) roll-out and so the proposed authority to check such practices might not be required, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Thursday. In an exclusive interview with FE, he also said more than Rs 8,000 crore has already been released to the states for their GST-related revenue shortfall for July-August period, as “almost all states except one or two” have sought the constitution-guaranteed succour.

Calling invoice-matching the “heart” of GST, the official said it would have to start in right earnest sooner rather than latter, although the GST Council was still open to relaxing the schedule for filing the comprehensive returns (GSTR-1, 2 and 3) and concomitant invoice-matching after learning from the July cycle that is underway.

The review could mean that even larger businesses that are now filing returns on a monthly basis could get leeway to upload bills on the GST Network after longer intervals, say quarterly or half-yearly. Recently, the council allowed firms with a turnover below `1.5 crore (over 90% of the taxpayer base) to move to quarterly-filing mode from October.

Asked how much of the Rs 65,000 crore transitional credit claimed against input taxes (excise/service tax) paid in pre-GST regime was allowed against the claimants’ July GST liability, the revenue secretary said that these credits were difficult to segregate from the fresh credits for July purchases.

However, he added that the whole transitional claims will be exhausted “in six months” (starting July). “Some people may not have a big (tax) liability so they could continue (to utilise transitional credit)

for a few more months and reduce (government) revenue in the period to that extent,” he said.

Without hazarding a conjecture on the revenue potential of the GST in the present form, as “we may have to wait for at least six months” to make a reasonable conclusion, the secretary said the proposed rate convergence would not happen this year. On the highest GST rate of 28% (applicable on 19% of items under GST when it was launched in July; the rates were cut on a few subsequently) being pinching, he said: “We may move items from higher to lower tax slabs on the basis of certain principles enunciated in the approach paper approved by the council. A fitment committee will work on it and its proposals will be considered in the council.” However, he added that the council hasn’t yet started working on more rate cuts as the approach paper was approved only in its last meeting on October 6.

Asked whether it wasn’t a matter of concern that 40% of the 55 lakh businesses that filed the interim returns for July had paid nil tax, Adhia said it indeed was. “It is a large number. If enforcement is required, we will carry it out, but not in the nature of search and seizure. We may carry out discreet inquiries and hold meetings with such groups of taxpayers, trying to find out the reasons (for claiming no business activity).”

The official admitted that once invoice-matching is regularised, it could prove a bit painful for a couple of months or so (as deferment will have resulted in some accumulation), but the system will be a powerful deterrent to non-compliant suppliers as they “run the risk of being pushed out of business permanently”. “Such suppliers will be recorded and based on who is defaulting and how much, we will issue compliance rating to them. A buyer will then look at the rating and if it is bad, might decide not to buy from the seller. It is a self-policing system.”

Also read: Are businesses really facing problems or is it just another political stunt with GST?

Adhia hinted at the redundancy of dreaded Anti-profiteering Authority, considering the nature of complaints and their resolution so far. “Whatever (complaints) we have got are from restaurants and real estate and these too are small in nature. There are no national level complains as of now. If a state receives a complaint, it will be examined by the screening committee at its level and the complaint will come to the standing committee (at the Centre) only if the screening committee finds merit in it. The standing committee could refer the matter to the DG-safeguards which, upon probe, could refer to the authority,” he explained. The GST Council has cleared the setting up of the authority, but it is yet to be approved by the Union Cabinet, let alone take shape.

While about `15,000 crore has been collected via the GST cesses on demerit goods in the July-August period, the funds released to the states were lower at just over `8,000 crore. But Adhia hastened to add that the cess proceeds might not be in surplus. Because of the transition, states saw buoyant VAT revenues in July and almost the entire revenue shortfall for the first two months of GST was of August, he said, adding that cess revenue might even fall in the coming months.


XaTTaX: Cloud and On-Premises Based GST Filing Software For India

Source :  FInancial Express