GST council set to finalise e-way bill rollout,
easier return filing rules on Saturday
Gearing up for crucial measures against tax
evasion, the GST Council headed by finance minister Arun
Jaitley will finalise a simpler return filing process
and give approval for the rollout of e-way or
electronic-way bill from April 1 in its 26th meeting in
New Delhi on Saturday.
The Council will also tweak certain rules
pertaining to the anti-profiteering mechanism under
Goods and Services Tax (GST), giving more flexibility
and power to the apex body National Profiteering
Authority (NAA) in its final decision making process
before penalising any company for profiteering, a senior
government official told Moneycontrol.
For instance, if Director General Safeguards, the
investigative arm under anti-profiteering mechanism,
suggests that a firm had profiteered and not passed on
the benefit under GST to the final consumer, then NAA
can now ask for a further investigation into the matter
if it is not satisfied with the final findings. |
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Implementation of key features under the new indirect
tax regime--reverse charge mechanism, tax deducted and
collected at source--deferred until March 31, 2018, will
be put on the back burner for another six months.
Exporters can also heave a sigh of relief as they may
continue to get Integrated GST (IGST) exemption for
another six months, beginning April 1, the official
said, adding that initiation towards development of
e-wallet has also been deferred by two quarters.
In the pre-GST era, exporters would get ab-initio
exemptions from duties, as per various schemes under the
foreign trade policy. With the implementation of the new
indirect tax system from July 1, exporters had to pay
the duties first, while importing the raw material and
seek refund after the finished good is exported.
However, in October, the Council approved IGST exemption
till March 31, 2018 as exporters were grappling with
locked up tax refunds that were hurting their working
capital availability.
In addition, the Council may look at constituting an
officers’ panel for grievance redressal mechanism, to
deal with mainly litigation related to GST.
Extra neutral alcohol or ethyl alcohol, a highly
concentrated form of spirit which is used in making
alcoholic beverages may be brought under the GST net.
In the last Council meet on January 18, there were
extensive discussions between states and the Centre to
simplify the return filing process, while reaching a
conclusion to keep the concept of invoice matching—key
measure against tax evasion—intact.
Infosys head and former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani
had put forth possible suggestions towards making the
return filing process less complex.
“Simpler return forms and ease of availing input credit
can be impactful in improving collections and overall
compliance. There have been discussions around whether
to continue to allow provisional credit as declared in
the return form or to use automatic route for generation
of returns and allow credit based on invoices uploaded
by suppliers,” Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO ClearTax
said.
“Using technology will have positive outcomes for the
ecosystem and will reduce cost of compliance for both
govt and businesses, however, stability of the system is
critical for this to succeed,” Gupta said.
In January, Jaitley had indicated that in the future a
single stage return filing will be introduced to reduce
compliance burden and ease procedures for businesses.
Meanwhile, businesses will have to file GSTR3B or the
summary form for the next few months, till the new
mechanism is announced and similar changes are made in
the software, another official said.
Source::: Money
Control,
dated 09/03/2018
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