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GST mop-up in March at Rs 1.60 lakh cr

gst.( sOURCE: ianstwitter)

It is for the fourth time, in the current financial year, that the gross GST collection has crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark…reports Asian Lite News

Recording a growth, the gross GST revenue in March rose to Rs 1,60,122 crore as compared with Rs 1,49,577 crore during February this year.

“The Gross GST revenue of Rs 1,60,122 crore comprise CGST of Rs 29,546 crore, SGST of Rs 37,314 crore, IGST of Rs 82,907 crore (including Rs 42,503 crore collected on import of goods) and cess of Rs 10,355 crore (including Rs 960 crore collected on import of goods),” the finance ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

It is for the fourth time, in the current financial year, that the gross GST collection has crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark, registering second highest collection since implementation of GST. This month witnessed the highest IGST collection ever.

The government has settled Rs 33,408 crore to CGST and Rs 28,187 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and the states in March after IGST settlement is Rs 62,954 crore for CGST and Rs 65,501 crore for the SGST.

Officials said that the revenues for the month of March 2023 are 13 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods was 8 per cent higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 14 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. The return filing during March 2023 has been highest ever. 93.2 per cent of statement of invoices (in GSTR-1) and 91.4 per cent of returns (in GSTR-3B) of February were filed till March 2023 as compared to 83.1 per cent and 84.7 per cent, respectively same month last year.

The total gross collection for 2022-23 stands at Rs 18.10 lakh crore and the average gross monthly collection for the full year is Rs 1.51 lakh crore. The gross revenues in 2022-23 were 22 per cent higher than last year. The average monthly gross GST collection for the last quarter of the FY 2022-23 has been Rs 1.55 lakh crore against the average monthly collection of Rs 1.51 lakh crore, Rs 1.46 lakh crore and Rs 1.49 lakh crore in the first, second and third quarters respectively.

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GST Council recommends to decriminalise certain offences

gst.( sOURCE: ianstwitter)

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said GST on online gaming and casinos was not discussed as the report of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue submitted its report only a couple of days back…reports Asian Lite News

The GST Council on Saturday recommended decriminalising certain offences and doubled the threshold for launching prosecution from Rs one crore to Rs two crore, except for the offence of issuance of invoices without supply of goods or services or both.

Moreover, it also recommended reducing the compounding amount from the present range of 50 per cent to 150 per cent of tax amount to the range of 25 per cent to 100 per cent.

Measures for facilitation of trade also included recommendation on decriminalising certain offences including obstruction or preventing any officer in discharge of his duties; deliberate tempering of material evidence and failure to supply the information.

Speaking on the deliberations at the Council’s meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that no new taxes have been brought.

The 48th GST Council met under the Chairmanship of Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman via virtual mode in New Delhi on Saturday. The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs (with legislature) and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance and states/ UTs.

“Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman chairs the 48th meeting of the GST Council via virtual mode, in New Delhi, today, the finance ministry tweeted.

Moreover, the Council has clarified on what constitutes an SUV and the tax applicable for such categories of automobiles. The council clarified that vehicle SUVs with an engine capacity exceeding 1,500 cc and length exceeding 4,000 mm with a ground clearance of 170 mm or above will attract a 22 per cent compensation cess.

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said GST on online gaming and casinos was not discussed as the report of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue submitted its report only a couple of days back.

It was also clarified that goods falling in the lower rate category of 5 per cent under schedule I of notification No. 1/2017-CTR imported for petroleum operations will attract a lower rate of 5 per cent and the rate of 12 per cent shall be applicable only if the general rate is more than 12 per cent.

As a relief measure, the Council decided to regularise the intervening period starting from the date of issuance of Circular (3.08.2022) in respect of GST on ‘husk of pulses including chilka and concentrates including chuni/churi, khanda’ on “as is basis” on account of genuine doubts.

It also said that no GST is payable where the residential dwelling is rented to a registered person if it is rented it in his/her personal capacity for use as his/her own residence and on his own account and not on account of his business.

The GST Council could not discuss the taxation on tobacco and gutkha due to paucity of time on Saturday. No decision has been taken on the next meeting of the GST Council, said officials.

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Sitharaman clears air on new GST rates

The Finance Minister released a list of items that will not attract any GST, when sold loose, and not pre-packed or pre-labeled…reports Asian Lite News

Following uproar in the Parliament over GST on food items, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday defended the imposition of 5 per cent GST on food articles such as cereals, rice, flour and curd, which are pre-packaged and labelled, saying that it was a unanimous decision of the GST Council last month in which even non-BJP ruled states were present.

The Finance Minister released a list of items that will not attract any GST, when sold loose, and not pre-packed or pre-labeled.

In a series of tweets, she said: “Recently, the GST Council in its 47th meeting recommended to reconsider the approach for imposition of GST on specified food items like pulses, cereals, flour, etc. There have been a lot of misconceptions about this that have been spread. Here is a thread to lay the facts.”

“Is this the first time such food articles are being taxed? No. States were collecting significant revenue from foodgrain in the pre-GST regime. Punjab alone collected more Rs 2,000 cr on food grain by way of purchase tax. UP collected Rs 700 cr,” she said.

“Taking this into account, when GST was rolled out, a GST rate of 5% was made applicable on BRANDED cereals, pulses, flour. Later this was amended to tax only such items which were sold under REGISTERED brand or brand on which enforceable right was not foregone by supplier,” the FM said.

“However, soon rampant misuse of this provision was observed by reputed manufacturers & brand owners and gradually GST revenue from these items fell significantly. This was RESENTED by suppliers and industry associations who were paying taxes on branded goods. They wrote to the Govt to impose GST uniformly on all packaged commodities to stop such misuse. This rampant evasion in tax was also observed by States.”

“The Fitment Committee – consisting of officers from Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Gujarat – had also examined this issue over SEVERAL meetings and made its recommendations for changing the modalities to curb misuse.

“It is in this context that the GST Council in its 47th meeting took the decision. With effect from July 18, 2022, only the modalities of imposition of GST on these goods was changed with no change in coverage of GST except 2-3 items,” said the minister.

“It has been prescribed that GST on these goods shall apply when supplied in ‘pre-packaged and labelled’ commodities attracting the provisions of Legal Metrology Act.”

“For example, items like pulses, cereals like rice, wheat, and flour, etc, earlier attracted GST @ 5% when branded and packed in unit container. From 18.7.2022, these items would attract GST when ‘pre-packaged and labeled’,” Sitharaman tweeted.

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EV manufacturers laud industry-wide GST reduction

Battery price makes up as much as 50 per cent of an electric vehicle’s cost…reports Asian Lite News

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers hailed the GST Council’s decision that EVs with or without battery pack will now be taxed at 5 per cent.

At present, e-vehicles are taxed at 5 per cent while lithium-ion batteries are taxed at 18 per cent.

The decision was taken at the GST Council’s 47th meeting in Chandigarh on June 28-29, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

“Electric vehicles, whether or not fitted with a battery pack, are eligible for the concessional GST rate of 5 per cent,” a ministry statement read.

Akshit Bansal, CEO of electric vehicle (EV) charging network provider Statiq, said that the government has declared a clear intention to boost domestic EV adoption and usage by making the industry eligible for a concessional GST rate of 5 per cent.

“This move will encourage the industry to pass on more cost benefits to the users and also lend a necessary push to people who are still looking for incentives to adapt to the EV way-of-life,” Bansal told.

“I welcome this move of industry-wide GST reduction to 5 per cent and thank the government for helping us bridge the gap between the possible adoption of EVs and a real-life rise in its adoption,” he added.

Battery price makes up as much as 50 per cent of an electric vehicle’s cost.

In 2018, the GST rate on lithium-ion batteries was slashed from 28 per cent to 18 per cent.

In December last year, then NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the government was working on reducing GST on EV batteries.

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GST mop-up in November at Rs 1.31 lakh cr

Besides, the GST revenue for November 2021 was 25 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last year and 27 per cent over the like month of 2019-20. …reports Asian Lite News

India’s GST collection rose on both sequential and year-on-year basis in November.

The gross GST collection rose to Rs 1,31,526 crore last month, and it was the second straight month when the gross GST collection crossed Rs 1.30 lakh crore.

Besides, the GST revenue for November 2021 was 25 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last year and 27 per cent over the like month of 2019-20.

As per the Ministry of Finance, out of the total gross collection, CGST’s share was Rs 23,978 crore, SGST was Rs 31,127 crore, IGST about Rs 66,815 crore and cess was Rs 9,606 crore.

“The GST revenues for November 2021 have been the second highest ever since the introduction of GST, second only to that in April 2021, which related to year-end revenues and higher than last month’s collection, which also included the impact of returns required to be filed quarterly,” the ministry said.

“This is very much in line with the trend in economic recovery.”

It also said that the recent trend of high GST revenues has been a result of various policy and administrative measures that have been taken in the past to improve compliance.

“Central tax enforcement agencies, along with the state counterparts have detected large tax evasion cases, mainly cases relating to fake invoices, with the help of various IT tools developed by ‘GSTN’ that use the return, invoice and ‘e-way bill’ data to find suspicious taxpayers.

“A large number of initiatives undertaken in the last one year like, enhancement of system capacity, nudging non-filers after last date of filing of returns, auto-population of returns, blocking of ‘e-way bills’ and passing of input tax credit for non-filers has led to consistent improvement in the filing of returns over the last few months.”

ICRA Chief Economist, Aditi Nayar, said: “The November 2021 GST collections are somewhat lower than what we had expected, even as the pace of YoY expansion is robust.

“We were hopeful that the GST collections in November 2021 would exceed the prevailing highest collections recorded in April 2021, given the all-time high generation of e-way bills during October 2021.”

Looking ahead, Nayar said collections may dip in December 2021, as suggested by the deceleration in the daily average ‘e-way bill’ generation in the first three weeks of November 2021.

“Nevertheless, we expect CGST collections to rise to Rs 5.8 trillion in FY2022, exceeding the FY2022 BE by Rs 500 billion.”

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Compliance relief for all taxpayers extended

GST

As part of trade facilitation measures, the Council approved an amnesty scheme to provide relief to taxpayers regarding late fee for pending returns….reports Asian Lite News

The 43rd meeting of the GST Council on Friday continued to extend relief to taxpayers, particularly small taxpayers, who are worst-affected in the second wave of Covid pandemic sweeping the country.

As part of trade facilitation measures, the Council approved an amnesty scheme to provide relief to taxpayers regarding late fee for pending returns.

It has been decided that late fee on returns to filed in form GSTR-3B for tax periods from July 2017 to April 2021 will be capped to a maximum of Rs 500 (Rs 250 each for CGST & SGST) per return for taxpayers, who did not have any tax liability for the said tax periods. Also, late fee has been capped to a maximum of Rs 1,000 (Rs 500 each for CGST & SGST) per return for other taxpayers.

The reduced rate of late fee would apply if GSTR-3B returns for these tax periods are furnished between June 1 and August 31, a Finance Ministry statement said.

In addition, to reduce burden of late fee on smaller taxpayers, the upper cap of late fee has been rationalised by the Council to align late fee with tax liability/turnover of the taxpayers.

Further, in addition to the relief measures already provided to the taxpayers following measures announced on May 1, the council decided that for small taxpayers (aggregate turnover upto Rs 5 crore), with regard to their March and April 2021 tax periods, no interest rate will be charged for first 15 days from the due date of furnishing the return in FORM GSTR-3B or filing of PMT-06 Challan, a reduced rate of 9 per cent thereafter for further 45 days and 30 days for March 2021 and April 2021, respectively.

For large taxpayers (aggregate turnover more than Rs 5 crore), a lower rate of interest at 9 per cent for first 15 days after the due date of filing return in form GSTR-3B for the tax period May 2021 will be charged. Also, there will be a waiver of late fee for delay in furnishing returns in form GSTR-3B for the tax period May 2021 for 15 days from the due date of furnishing it.

In addition to these compliance measures, the Council also extended certain other Covid-19 related relaxations including extension of due date of filing GSTR-1/IFF for May 2021 by 15 days, extension of due date of filing GSTR-4 for FY 2020-21 to July 31, 2021, and allowing filing of returns by companies using Electronic Verification Code (EVC), instead of Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) till August 31, 2021.

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