mistake which can be sorted out by discussion for which
they may have a valid explanation. But if not, then
naturally I’ll issue the notice. Don’t want any major
shakeup, people should not say that I was a genuine guy,
but then you have made a case against me. Will soft
peddle into this. But, it has to happen. Cannot allow
truant and unscrupulous characters to go around and keep
doing things as they want,” Sarna told The Indian
Express.
She further said that a long time has been given to GST
taxpayers to come forward and rectify their mistakes.
“If there are unscrupulous traders, they need to be
booked now because a long time has been given to them to
come forward, get all their doubts cleared. Sewa Kendras
have been there for their assistance. And after all that
they are still breaking law. Naturally my officers have
to get there,” she said.
Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) along
with CBEC are expected to compile a list of tax evasion
cases by next month. Evasion-prone sectors are being
monitored closely under the new indirect tax regime,
Sarna said.
“By next month, will have an idea of cases, an idea of
what kind of evasion has happened, in what area and in
what particular groups. For instance, in central excise,
there used to be lot of evasion in iron and steel
sectors because there were certain evasion-prone areas
in types of goods. Similarly, now we will find
evasion-prone services. What is escaping the (tax) net,
needs to be brought in,” she said.
Government officials said that there are certain cases
wherein the CBEC has found tax history for last three
years, but the tax payment has suddenly disappeared and
such instances need to be detected so that the
government can find out why the taxpayer is not paying
tax.
The government has earlier flagged the low compliance
rate under both direct taxes and under GST, especially
for dealers under the GST composition scheme. Only 7
lakh out of 10 lakh registered dealers had filed returns
for the first quarter of the GST regime.
On February 5, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had said
that using technology under GST, the government will be
able to match the turnover details of a dealer under the
composition scheme as well as the presumptive taxation
scheme under the direct tax side. “In GST, if right now
I take the turnover which the composite scheme dealers
are showing is exactly matching with what they are
showing in income tax in the presumptive taxation
scheme. But once we have technology no trader will be
able to suppress his purchase side, then how will he
suppress his sales or turnover side. So then even the
composition scheme dealers will have no option but to
correct turnover in the GST return and the same return
he will have to show in the income tax return,” Adhia
had said.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had
also pointed towards the low compliance level in GST,
saying that it will improve with two-three anti-evasion
measures being put in place. “The two three anti evasion
measure that are possible are put in place, the
compliance level in GST will improve. That will probably
improve upon the collection and therefore meeting the
fiscal deficit target in coming year would be much
easier than what it was in current year,” Jaitley had
said. With the slip in GST revenue in October, there
were concerns among states as well as Centre about the
revenue leakages in the indirect tax regime. The
government had pushed for an early implementation of the
e-way bill system as an anti-evasion measure from
February 1 though it could not go through as the online
system for it crashed on the first day of the rollout,
forcing the government to continue only with the trial
run for trade and transporters. The government is now
set to implement e-way bill for inter-state movement of
goods exceeding Rs 50,000 in value and 10 km in travel
from its initially approved rollout date of April 1,
subject to approval of the GST Council.
The government is also looking at invoice matching
through simultaneous upload of invoices by sellers and
buyers along with a broader focus on returns
simplification that will also be discussed in the next
meeting of the GST Council scheduled to meet next on
March 10 via videoconferencing.
Source::: The Indian Express,
dated 27/02/2018