The GST Council is likely to discuss the recommendations of a group of state finance ministers regarding levy of 28 per cent tax on online gaming, casinos and horse racing, in its 50th meeting next week. The council is also likely to thrash out a consensus on whether the tax would be levied on the full value of bets placed or on the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). Sources said the report of the GoM, convened by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, has been circulated to the states and a threadbare discussion is likely in the council meeting on July 11. The GoM members were unanimous on 28 per cent GST to be levied on these activities. However, since no consensus could be reached on whether the tax should be levied on the full face value of bets placed or the GGR, which is the fees charged by online gaming portals, the GoM left the decision on the GST Council, sources said. In December, the GoM submitted its report to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Experts disagree with ruling and say it could be reviewed at higher judicial forums
Administrative and policy interventions needed
The pan-India drive against fake GST registration has created problems for e-commerce companies which maintain virtual offices in various states with minimal staff and no books of accounts. Talking to PTI, MakeMyTrip Group Vice President -Taxation Tajinder Singh said that the GST officials should enquire with the head offices with regard to virtual offices before categorising the state registration as a fake entity for non-production of books of accounts. "We maintain virtual offices in states ...in this fake registration drive the field offices have mistook these offices as fake registration, however we were only using these offices for tax payment, there was no ITC flow or fraud being committed using those registration. Because of this, lot of registration were blocked for compliance purpose and that created problems for us," Singh said. Centre and state GST authorities have on May 16 launched a two-month drive to check fake registration under Goods and Services Tax (GST). The fak
Imports were the only exception in the otherwise strong GST numbers in the first three months of the current financial year
CBIC is working on biometric authentication of risky entities under GST as it looks to crack down on fraudsters who are misusing the PAN and Aadhaar of other people to obtain GST registration, CBIC chief Vivek Johri said. Johri further said that the tax authorities are also discussing some more tightening in the GST return filing system to limit the scope of claiming Input Tax Credit (ITC), when taxes have not been paid by suppliers in the supply chain. The biometric authentication of authorised representatives or directors or partners of a company will be made for new registration applications and existing businesses registered under Goods and Services Tax (GST) if tax officers have a suspicion that the entities are being set up only to fraudulently claim ITC. Also, geo-tagging of all entities is being planned by the officers of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to authenticate that the address provided during GST registration is the place from where the entity
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said Goods and Services Tax (GST) has helped bring down the taxes for consumers by removing the cascading effect of 'tax-on-tax' and added to the revenue buoyancy of states. She said the GST system has seen massive scaling up since its implementation on July 1, 2017, and the benefit accrued to consumers and governments because of GST implementation is an "exemplar". "GST has brought in greater tax buoyancy as a result of which, more than your GSDP growth, your tax collection is growing. Therefore, both Centre and states benefit...We have to dispel this myth that states are losing out after having joined hands for GST...Today, no state suffers after GST, and that is despite Covid," Sitharaman said. Giving a comparison of tax rates pre and post-GST, Sitharaman said, "GST has done justice to the consumers by bringing the rates down compared to the previous regime". Before GST was introduced, India's indirect tax system was fragmented, wh
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said Goods and Services Tax (GST) has increased revenue buoyancy of states, and the all-round benefit stands out as "exemplary". The multiplicity of taxes in the pre-GST regime resulted in a "tax-on-tax" effect, causing the same product to be taxed multiple times and hence becoming costlier for the consumers, she said at the GST Day 2023. Giving a comparison of the tax rates pre and post-GST, Sitharaman said, "GST has done justice to the consumers by bringing the rates down compared to the previous regime". Before GST was introduced, India's indirect tax system was fragmented, where every state was effectively a distinct market for the industry as well as the consumer. "Whether it is common consumer, whether it is the state government, a matter of tax buoyancy, whether it is making it digital and simpler, GST stands out as an exemplar," Sitharaman said. State revenue buoyancy pre-GST was 0.72, while post-GST, it is 1.22. "GST has br
Tripura has set a revenue target of Rs 3,000 crore this fiscal, state Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy said on Saturday. The state's tax collection has doubled after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said. "Initially, there were doubts on GST introduction in the country. People even faced difficulties after the new tax regime kicked off, but over the years all the bottlenecks have been addressed. Our tax collection has more than doubled under the GST regime," he told reporters on the sidelines of a GST programme at Town Hall. He said the tax collection, which was around Rs 1,300 crore before GST rollout, increased to Rs 2,765 crore in the last fiscal. "Now, we have set a target of over Rs 3,000 crore for the 2023-24 FY. We are trying to connect new tax payers who still remain outside the GST ambit. In a state like Tripura, GST means a lot to carry out development work and welfare activities," he said. Roy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been workin
GST officers have busted 304 syndicates involving 9,000 fake GSTINs and input tax credit (ITC) claims of Rs 25,000 crore in the ongoing drive against bogus firms, CBIC chairman Vivek Johri said on Saturday. The chief of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) flagged that only 40 per cent of the corporate income taxpayer base is registered under Goods and Services Tax (GST). Currently, 1.39 lakh businesses are registered under GST, launched 6 years ago on July 1, 2017. Speaking at the GST Day 2023 event here, Johri appealed to the business to get registered under GST and said the department is conducting an outreach programme to make businesses aware of the benefits of GST. The Centre and state tax officers are conducting a special two-month drive to identify fake businesses registered under GST for the purpose of claiming ITC fraudulently and defrauding the exchequer. In the ongoing drive, officers have identified 304 syndicates involving 9,000 fake GSTINs (GST ...
Puducherry Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday said the introduction and implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country has brought in an economic revolution in the country. Addressing officers and tax payers at the celebrations of 'Six Years of GST' organised by the Commissionerate of GST and Central Excise (Puducherry), the Lt Governor said it (GST) marked a significant milestone in the indirect system of taxation. "It is a remarkable initiative in a diverse and federal country as multiple tax laws have been consolidated into a single system. It is no small feat," the Lt Governor said. She said tax compliance had also increased. "Where there is increased response and compliance the development of the nation is also ensured," the Lt Governor, who also gave away awards to the tax payers on the occasion said. Soundararajan said the GST Council meeting also took into consideration periodically the various views and feedback from Finance Ministers of state
GST collections rose 12 per cent to over Rs 1.61 lakh crore in June, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday. The gross GST collection has crossed Rs 1.60 lakh crore mark for the fourth time since the roll-out of the indirect tax regime six years ago on July 1, 2017. The average monthly gross GST collection for the first (April-June) quarter of the 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 are Rs 1.10 lakh crore, Rs 1.51 lakh crore and Rs 1.69 lakh crore, respectively, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. "The gross GST revenue collected in the month of June 2023 is Rs 1,61,497 crore of which Central GST is Rs 31,013 crore, State GST is Rs 38,292 crore, Integrated GST is Rs 80,292 crore (including Rs 39,035 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 11,900 crore (including Rs 1,028 crore collected on import of goods)," the statement said. The revenues for June 2023 are 12 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, the revenues from domestic
Traders' body CAIT on Saturday called for a fresh review of GST and said a special task force should be constituted to suggest ways to reduce multiplicity of laws and regulations on traders under the indirect tax system. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) described the completion of six years of implementation of GST in the country as a landmark success. The GST regime came into effect from July 1, 2017. However, it said much more needs to be done to make Goods and Services Tax (GST) a simplified and rationalised tax system. CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that the GST tax system should be made stable and more simplified by removing the current existing anomalies. "For this, a special task force should be constituted, in which besides senior government officials, representatives of businessmen and industry should be included. While this task force will on one hand give suggestions to rationalize the GST tax system and reduce multiplicity of laws and ...
No longer a discretion of the tax administrator, the audit of returns filed by taxpayers is now based on a selection by algorithms
Data exchange, reduced costs of business also help increase direct tax collection
Goods and Services Tax (GST) has acted as an engine for driving domestic consumption and helped households save on monthly bills since its implementation six years ago, the government said on Friday.. Giving a comparison of the tax rates of various goods pre and post-GST rollout, the government said from streamlining processes to boosting investments, GST has been a catalyst for progress. "The implementation of GST has made it easier for taxpayers to comply with tax law and this can be seen in the fact that the number of registered taxpayers has increased from 1.03 crore that enrolled into GST by April 1, 2018 to 1.36 crore by April 1, 2023," the office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted. A nationwide GST, which subsumed 17 local levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT and 13 cesses, was rolled out at the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2017. Under GST a four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of 5 per cent tax on essential items and a top rate of 28 p
There used to be a local value-added tax (VAT) for intra-state movement of goods, and a central sale tax (CST) regime for inter-sate movement
CSR activities are excluded from the normal course of business, says authority citing rules
Six years after the rollout of the biggest indirect tax reform in India, Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue of Rs 1.5 lakh crore every month has become a new normal and tax officers are focusing on dealing with fraudsters who are adopting newer modus operandi to game the system, causing loss to the exchequer. To apprehend black sheep, who operate as syndicates and create fake entities on the basis of forged documents to claim input tax credit (ITC), tax officers have started using data analytics, artifical intelligence and machine learning aiming to curb evasion, which was over Rs 3 lakh crore since inception of GST. It was over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23. Thinktank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the most critical pending GST reform is upgradation of GST Network to prevent fake supplies and fraudulent claims of Input Tax Credit (ITC). Data analysis and physical checks alone cannot completely solve the problem. The GSTN should enable linking of invoice level informati
The social media influencers came under the radar of the I-T department after posting their travel to exotic locations and luxury shopping on social media platforms