On e-way bills, Modi said the experience so far has been
good, with 25 per cent increase in the number of e-way
bills issued after the concept was extended to cover
intra-State trade.
In all, nine States accounted for 82 per cent of the
e-way bills generated.
The maximum number of inter-State e-way bills has been
generated from Gujarat (19.39 per cent) followed by
Karnataka (15.32 per cent) and Maharashtra (12.43 per
cent).
The other States that account for a significant share of
e-way bills are Haryana, Delhi, UP, Tamil Nadu and
Punjab, he said.
On Tuesday, the GoM held stakeholder consultations with
trade associations, State government officials (tax
officers) and 15 indirect tax experts.
Modi said that all of them have been asked to give their
suggestions (for return simplification) in writing to
the GST Council within seven days.
“Returns are the soul of GST”, Modi said, and it is for
the GST Council to take a final decision on how the
return simplification should proceed.
He said two main issues needed to be resolved: whether
or not the concept of provisional credit should be
allowed; and whether or not credit should be linked with
tax payment.
Today’s meeting was attended by, among others, Finance
Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Infosys Chairman Nandan
Nilekani.
Experts’ take
Meanwhile, Modi clarified that the current 3B return
(summary return) and GSTR 1 will continue till the
format of new return framework is finalised by the GST
Council. Extension of the intra-State e-way bill to six
more States signifies that all States may get covered
within the next one month even for movements of goods
within the State.
However, it is only when large manufacturing States like
Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra come on board that the system
will get truly tested.
“GSTR 3B has proven to be a simple return template that
businesses are getting used to, and hence, it is wise to
continue with the same. However, in order to facilitate
invoice matching, additional invoice details such as
GSTR 1 may be required,” said MS Mani, Partner, Deloitte
India.
Abhishek Jain, Partner, EY, said it was encouraging to
note that the GoM is taking feedback from the industry
and tax experts before finalising the process for GSTR-2
and credit entitlement. The smooth functioning of e-way
bills generation for inter-State and six States for
intra-State has encouraged the government to introduce
intra-State e-way bills for six more States from April
20, he noted.
Source::: THE
HINDU Business Line, dated 17/04/2018.