Tag: GST Collection

Categories
Finance

GST: Businesses Not Ready With E-invoicing Will Get 30-Day Grace Period, Here’s How E-Invoicing Will Lead to Improvement in Overall Business Efficiency

good and service tax
GST (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai, October 1: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Wednesday announced a 30 day grace period for those businesses which are not yet ready for GST e-invoicing.

In a notification on Wednesday evening, CBIC noted that even after more than nine months of the first notification in this regard, some of these taxpayers having aggregate turnover of Rs 500 crore and above are still not ready.

According to an IANS update, the notification said, “In case a registered person has issued an invoice dated October 3, 2020, without obtaining IRNA but reports the details of such invoice to IRP and obtains the IRN of the invoice on or before 2nd November 2020 then it shall be deemed that the provisions of rule 48 (5) of the CGST Rules, 2017 are complied with and the penalty imposable under section 122 of the CGST Act, 2017 shall also stand waived.”

E-invoicing essentially involves reporting details of specified GST documents to a government-notified portal and obtaining a reference number. According to reports, the corporates, experts had strongly advocated postponement.

How will e-invoicing help?

Use of e-invoicing will make filing the returns easier as all the information will be auto-populated. It will also facilitate standardisation and inter-operability, leading to reduction of disputes among transacting parties. There will also be an improvement of payment cycles, and reduction of processing costs, which will lead to the improvement in the overall business efficiency.

Categories
Technology

GST Network Starts Providing Auto-Drafted ITC Statement GSTR-2B to Assist Taxpayers in Determining ITC Liability

Documentation of tax | Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pexels)

The GST Network (GSTN) on Saturday started providing auto-drafted input tax credit (ITC) statement GSTR-2B to taxpayers. The newly launched initiative would assist the taxpayers in determining their ITC liability. GSTR-2B will be generated on GST portal for every registered person on the basis of the information furnished by his suppliers. It will be made available for each month, on the 12th day of the succeeding month, GSTN said in a statement. Moreover, it is expected that GSTR-2B will help in reduction in time taken for preparing return, minimising errors, assist reconciliation & simplify compliance relating to filing of returns.

The GST Network handles the IT backbone of Goods and Services Tax (GST). “It is expected that GSTR-2B will help in reduction in time taken for preparing return, minimising errors, assisting reconciliation and simplify compliance relating to filing of returns,” it said.

Key features in GSTR-2B which would assist taxpayers in return filing are as under:

  1. It contains information on import of goods from the ICEGATE system including inward supplies of goods received from Special Economic Zones Units / Developers. This is not available with the release of GSTR-2B for the month of July and will be made available shortly.
  2. A summary statement which shows all the ITC available and non-available under each section. The advisory given against each section clarifies the action to be taken by the taxpayers in their respective section of GSTR-3B;
  3. Document level details of all invoices, credit notes, debit notes etc. is also provided both for viewing and download.
  4. GSTR-2B for the month of July 2020 has been made available on the common portal on trial basis.

Since, this is the first time that the statement is being introduced, taxpayers are advised to refer to GSTR-2B for the month of July, 2020 only for feedback purposes. All taxpayers are requested to go through their GSTR-2B for July 2020 and after comparing the same with the credit availed by them in July 2020, provide feedback (if any) on any aspect of GSTR-2B by raising a ticket on the self-service portal (https://selfservice.gstsystem.in/). All taxpayers are advised to view the detailed advisory relating to GSTR-2B on the common portal before using the statement.

The GST Council, in its 39th meeting held on March 14, 2020, had recommended to adopt and implement the incremental approach of linking the present system of filing of GSTR-3B and GSTR-1 and other significant changes like enhancements in GSTR-2A and its linking to GSTR-3B. One such enhancement that the Council recommended was introduction of an auto-drafted input tax credit (ITC) statement which would aid in assisting / determining the input tax credit that is available for every taxpayer.

Categories
Finance

GST Council Meet: Compensation Gap Stands at Rs 2.35 Lakh Crore for FY 2020-21 Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Centre Places 2 Options Before States

41st GST council meeting. (Photo Credit: PIB)
41st GST council meeting. (Photo Credit: PIB)

New Delhi, August 27: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday chaired the 41st Goods and Services Tax Council Meeting. During the meeting, the council estimated the compensation gap at around Rs 2.35 lakh crore in GST collections due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing the press conference, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey stated that the total shortfall in collection of GST is estimated at Rs 2.35 lakh crore, out of which Rs 97,000 crore is on account of GST shortfall while the rest is due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Following this, the Union Finance Ministry gave the states seven days time to get back on filling the compensation gap of Rs 2.35 lakh crore and hinted brief GST Council meeting soon. The Union Ministry also gave two options for states to fill the compensation gap.

The first includes a special window which can be provided to the states, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, at a reasonable interest rate for the borrowing of Rs 97,000 crore. The amount can be repaid after five years (of GST implementation) ending 2022 from cess collection. While the second option is to borrow the entire Rs 2.35 lakh crore shortfall under the special window.

Apart from this, the Union Ministry stated that it will provide a further relaxation of 0.5 per cent in states’ borrowing limit under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 (FRBM Act, 2003). With this, states can choose to borrow more, beyond the expected compensation itself, since that is the injury caused by COVID-19.

Among other details, Union FM Revenue Secretary said that there was hardly any GST Collection in April and May. Adding more, he said, “Total GST compensation during April-July 2020 to be paid is Rs 1.5 lakh crores.” The Union Ministry informed that Centre released more than Rs 1.65 lakh crore as GST compensation to states for FY 2019-20, including Rs 13,806 crore for March.