GST in Media

Pen manufacturers have reached out to the government seeking a reduction in GST rate as higher taxes have escalated costs and hit sales after the government recently clubbed all pens under the 18% GST bracket. Read more

The right of GST refund would be independent to the process of investigation, ruled the Karnataka High Court in a petition filed by Bundl Technology, which operates e-commerce platform Swiggy. Accordingly, it has asked the GST Department to consider refund application. Read more

The Maharashtra bench of the GST Authority for Advance Rulings has rejected an application filed by a Mumbai-based private company as it was not the supplier of goods or services. The AAR pointed out that there are two conditions to be fulfilled for making an advance ruling application. First the question asked should be in relation to supply undertaken by the ‘applicant’. Second, the question should be in relation to the supply of goods or services or both ‘being undertaken or proposed to be undertaken by the applicant’. Read more

The government may consider one single tax rate for online gaming as two different rates of 18% and 28% based on the distinction between so-called games of skill and games of chance are prone to misuse and litigation on account of the overlap between the two categories, two people aware of the thinking in government circles said. Read more

The government is considering easing goods and services tax (GST) rules for re-export of leased planes, in what would offer a major boost to airline financials hit hard by the covid-induced turbulence. Read more

The enthusiasm to add fruit juice to carbonated drinks has come back to haunt regional drinks makers, as these products are currently subject to a GST of 28% with an additional 12% of compensation cess. They were earlier paying 12%. Read more

Since the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Ahmedabad and Surat have become the hubs for bogus billing in Gujarat, while the web of illegal transactions has also spread to rapidly industrialising districts like Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Morbi and Gandhinagar where a sizeable number of trading and business firms have been found involved in this racket.

Both Ahmedabad and Surat districts account for almost 58 per cent of the Rs 3,094 crore worth of taxes involved in bogus billing rackets in the three years ending June 30, 2021, the state government stated in a written reply to an unstarred question asked by Congress MLA from Petlad, Niranjan Patel about bogus billing in GST during the recently concluded monsoon session of Gujarat Assembly. Read more

The officers of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, Delhi East, carried out the detailed analysis and unearthed a network of fictitious exporters who were availing and utilizing fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) of Rs 134 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with an intent to claim IGST refund fraudulently. Read more

The finance ministry had on September 30 made the announcement to increase GST for all railway products covered under chapter 86. The Railway Suppliers Association (Rasa) has urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to defer the recent decision to increase goods and service tax (GST) on railway products from 12% to 18%. Read more

Chief Executive Offer of Selco Solar Lights Mohan Bhaskar Hegde regretted the raising of the tax rate from 5% to 12% and said that this increased rate would hamper growth in the renewable energy sector. Read more

The Delhi government has collected ₹9,560.52 crore in goods and services tax (GST) in the first two quarters of financial year 2021-22, compared to ₹5,712 crore for the corresponding period the previous fiscal — an indication that trade and commercial activities are recovering in the national capital after remaining in a state of limbo due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more

To implement GST in road constructions where payment by the government is made in parts, i.e., annuity, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has come out with a circular defining various scenarios. The GST Council, in its meeting on May 28, recommended no exemption from GST on the annuity (deferred payments) paid. Read more

Punjab recorded Rs 1,188 crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collections in August, a growth of over 20% on the corresponding period last year. Read more

According to sources, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence has been issuing these notices over the past month and now industries have escalated the matter to North Block. “Companies in sectors like steel, steel scrap, real estate, IT, e-commerce, etc, are getting such notices very often and are the worst affected sectors,” sources told CNBCTV18. Companies have submitted a detailed representation to GST authorities and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to avoid hardships. Read more

A deputy commissioner of state taxes and three of his associates were caught red-handed by sleuths of anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Friday while accepting bribe of Rs 1 lakh. The accused had allegedly demanded Rs 2 lakh bribe from a yarn businessman to reactivate blocked GST number of his partnership firm. Read more

Sources close to the development have told Business Today that the issue is unlikely to be part of the agenda for the Council meeting on 17 September.  A top finance ministry source told Business Today on condition of anonymity, “It is highly unlikely that the Council will take up the matter in the upcoming meeting. Let alone the upcoming meeting, GST reduction on auto sector will not be possible in the near future.”  Read more

The GST enforcement wing on 02.09.2021, busted a racket involved in fake invoicing of Rs 1,819 crore and arrested two persons. The racket had availed bogus input tax credit (ITC) of Rs 323 crore by raising fake purchase and sale invoices in the names of 13 fictitious firms incurring a loss of Rs 58.14 crore to the State exchequer Read more

The government may not need to open special borrowing window to meet GST compensation needs of states in the current financial year as rising indirect tax collections on economic recovery has given confidence that the Centre may meet its tax liability through estimated buffets in its finances. Read more

Papad, by whatever name known, is exempt from the GST and the tax rate does not vary based on its shape, the CBIC has clarified. The clarification by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) came after industrialist Harsh Goenka tweeted that round shaped papad is exempt from Goods and Services Tax whereas a square papad attracts the levy. Read more

As per the recent tweet of CNBC-TV18, the Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the 45th meeting of the GST Council on September 17, 2021 at Lucknow.

Registration for the ambitious industrial development scheme for development of Jammu & Kashmir with a financial outlay of ₹28,400 crore was opened on Tuesday with the launch of the online portal by Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday.

“It’s a new dawn for investment & business development in J&K…investment of more than ₹50,000 crore is now expected to take place in J&K,” Shah said while launching the portal under the ‘New Central Sector Scheme 2021’. The scheme is open for any eligible manufacturing entity or eligible service sector enterprise registered business enterprise under Goods and Service Tax (GST), according to an official statement. Read more

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it has constituted a committee which will be headed by Ashish Shiradhonkar, who is heading the e-courts project in National Informatics Centre, to develop a technological platform streamlining the appeal filing process related to direct and indirect taxation matters. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the committee will complete its work in three months and will have members from revenue department, CBDT and CBIT. Read more

The current GST rate on automobiles, including cars, motorbikes and trucks is at 28%, on top of which other taxes are imposed by states. “I would be very happy to engage with you to see what we can do even on (GST) tax rates, what is the tinkering we can do to see to it that certain (vehicle) segments get the encouragement they deserve,” Bajaj said at Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) 61st Annual Convention. Read more

The Central Goods and Services (CGST) Commissionerate has detected evasion of GST worth several crores by a firm in Uttarakhand’s Uddham Singh Nagar district. It recovered Rs.5 crore in a search operation carried out simultaneously at nine locations across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, and Delhi. People aware of the matter said the Commissionerate has detected tax evasion of around ₹8 crore. Read more

A ruling made by the GST Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR-Gujarat) has held that lassi, the fermented milk beverage, is exempt from GST. This ruling was made when a Valsad-based manufacturer and supplier of the product approached seeking clarity on the applicable GST rate on Lassi. Read more

E-way bill generation is increasing in August, 2021. So far 20.7 lakh e-way bill has been generated till 22nd August , which is 4.4% higher than the daily average for the first 25 days of July. Read more

The Ahmedabad Zonal Unit of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), has arrested a resident of Ahmedabad, who is the mastermind involved in issuing fake ITC bills of about Rs. 1000 crores. It has resulted into the evasion of taxes of about Rs. 200 crores. This person was evading arrest for the last 5-6 months by changing locations frequently. Read more

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a key conspirator on Friday in a export case of Rs.1800 crore with the intention of availing duty drawback incentives. Read more

Seven companies fraudulently availed Input Tax Credit (ITC) without any supply of goods and services on the strength of bogus invoices and claimed Rs 118 Crore as refund against exports. Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Mumbai Zonal Unit has arrested the promoter of these seven companies. Read more

If the government wants to create a business-friendly climate in the country. electronic monitoring system to track all direct and indirect taxes’ litigation is needed. A technological tool to monitor revenue proceedings and litigation at all levels will ultimately serve the legitimate interests of the government. Bring all the procedures of adjudication under one net so that the government is able to monitor its litigation very efficiently. This is for the benefit of the entire nation and for revenue,” the bench told solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Union government. Read more

Low-cost airline SpiceJet has been granted relief from the Punjab and Haryana High Court which has asked the GST department to consider and pass an order on the airline’s plea of paying the tax dues in instalments. GST authorities issued a notice in late July, asking SpiceJet to pay tax liabilities of Rs 80.6 crore and furnish details of movable and immovable properties, warning that they would initiate recovery proceedings if the payment was not made. Read more

Q1 tax collections rose 39 per cent to Rs 5.6 lakh crore and inspite of this government borrow heavily from the market, Read more

On suspicion of bogus billing, the state GST department, Ludhiana, conducted inspections at four firms and seized more than Rs.41 lakh cash from two of the firms along with a huge cache of incriminating documents. Our teams are working round the clock to process the data gathered said Tejbir Singh Sidhu, deputy commissioner of the state. Read more

The Gujarat high court on Wednesday said that the state government said that the state government should not keep the sword of PASA hanging over traders on issues pertaining to GST when the economy is trying to regain momentum following the covid19 situation. Read more

A more efficient way is to bring all indirect taxes under GST. It will enable exporters who have paid embedded taxes in the value chain ending in export to claim a routine refund. This will also avoid any possible disputes over export incentive schemes at the WTO. Read more

GST Council is scheduled to meet at least once in three months. The last meeting took place on June 12 with a single agenda of relief on Covid-related items. It was also decided that a special meeting will take place on the compensation mechanism. The council had a physical meeting last time on March 14, 2020. Read more

Haryana GST Intelligence Unit was in respect of certain information regarding fraudulent transactions being carried out by some firms engaged in the business of Iron and Steel scrap to evade tax. Read more

The daily average e-way bill generation count is expected to increase further in August. Average daily e-way bill generation was 19.24 lakh in the first 11 days of July, 20.4 lakh in the week ended July 18, 20.2 lakh in the week ended July 25 and 24.3 lakh in the last six days of July. Read more

After cryptocurrencies, the non-fungible token or NFT has attracted the taxman’s attention as any purchase of the blockchain digital file will attract equalisation levy and goods and services tax (GST). Read more

The AAR , Andhra Pradesh said the principal supply undertaken by the organisation is a supply of purified water, which is taxable at 18 per cent. “Imposing a tax of 18 per cent on purified water supplied to the public for consumption would be against the fundamental human right. Government must rise to this occasion and exempt all forms of supply of potable water in unsealed containers,” AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Mohan said. Read more

A team of DGGST Intelligence raided the factory of SNK, Pan Masala Group for GST evasion of about Rs. 50 crores. After the implementation of GST, it is being said that this arrest was probably the first case wherein an owner of a big pan masala group and its director were nailed in the city. Read more

Two-wheelers and four-wheelers were not only charged 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) but are also charged cess which is much more and as I see it will continue for two more years says Revenue Secretary while addressing the annual session of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Read more

The tax department has served a notice to SpiceJet for non-payment of GST dues asking the airline to pay ₹80.68 crore with interest as dues between February 2020 and June 2021. SpiceJet has filed a writ petition in the Chandigarh High Court against the notice. Read more

Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj on Wednesday said that the next GST Council meeting is likely to discuss tax rates, inverted duties and propose changes in the exemption basket. The secretary also admitted GST rates on four-wheelers are high especially due to the compensation cess and he doesn’t see a way out, at least on the cess which according to him will continue for a few more years. Read more

The next meeting of the all-powerful Goods and Service Tax Council is likely to be convened in the last week of August or the first week of September. The meeting may focus entirely on discussions between the Centre and States on the details of extending compensation beyond June 2022. Read more

Businessmen were made aware of GST regulations and with the procedure to register with the department. They have been directed to register their businesses soon. If the department will still find unregistered businesses after this whole process, action will be taken against the offenders,” stated Verma. Read more

When the GST kicked in in 2017, the Centre promised to compensate states that faced a shortfall in tax collections for five years. The dues for TN as on March 2021 were Rs. 20,033.02 crore, the white paper released on Monday showed. Read more

Officials of the Directorate of GST, Bengaluru busted a racket and raided an IT firm situated in Viveknagar for not only evading GST, but also operating 12 companies under one roof. During the search, the officials recovered documents of 12 companies registered in various places. Some of the companies are dealing with online betting and gambling and were operating from the same office. Read more

The government has achieved 26.6 per cent of the budget estimates for GST collections in the first three months of the current fiscal, Parliament was informed on Monday. In reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said net GST collection in the April-June quarter was over Rs 1.67 lakh crore, which is 26.6 per cent of the budget estimate of Rs 6.30 lakh crore for full 2021-22 fiscal. Read more

Ready to cook dosa, idli, porridge mix etc,, sold in powdered form are taxable @18% even though the GST rate is 5% if they are sold as batter, the Tamil Nadu bench of the Authority (AAR) ruled. Read more

Tamilnadu Foodgrains Merchants Association Limited stressed on reducing GST rates under 22 heads to zero and 5% from the existing 18% and 12%. President S P Jeyapragasam and secretary S V S S Velsekar also sought waiver of GST on processes such as cleaning, categorising and value addition of farm produce, reforms in input tax credit and making advance ruling for individuals applicable to everyone in the sector. Read more

Puducherry CM said that , after the implementation of GST due to the destination-based taxation principle, the UT is suffering substantial revenue loss, GST compensation by the Government of India is bridging the gap. Post GST compensation period from July 2022, UT will have a revenue loss of Rs.140 crore per month. Therefore the Govt of India is requested to extend the compensation period beyond 5 years or to release additional central assistance in lieu of GST compensation with effect from 1st July 2022 Read more

Deputy CM said that Haryana has been a leading state in implementing tax reforms. Continuing its tradition of adopting new and improved systems, the state has recently decided to launch ‘Model-2’ of implementation of GST. Now the process of the new system is complete and all the officers are working on the ‘BO-web portal’ developed by ‘GSTN’. Read more

“Analysis of the firms showed that fake bills and invoices raised from these firms were used to transfer ITC (Input Tax Credit ) to other firms. During probe, it was found that seven firms were registered on the same address, while other five were registered on the same address at another location. The rest also had fake addresses. In total, these 19 firms were used to issue fake bills and invoices worth ₹294 crore,” said SK Singh, principal commissioner. Read more

Kerala’s tax revenues did not gain from implementation of the GST and a rethink on the tax was needed, the state’s finance minister KN Balagopal said on Wednesday. Read more

Raids, searches, arrests and probe into the case is underway since July 7, and revelation from electronic documents seized from Sajwani’s residence suggest that the scam could involve generation and distribution of bogus bills valued at Rs 2,000 crore. Sources said it could be one of the biggest fake billing scams reported in Gujarat since the new regime rolled out. Read more

The Mumbai unit of DGGSTI arrested the MD of Bombay Rayon Fashion Limited (BRFL), a fabric and garment company for violation of various section of GST Act. Read more

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also handles the finance portfolio, on Monday met with representatives of market unions who thanked the government for passing the Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2021. One of the key features of the GST amendment bill is the removal of the requirement of compulsory filing of audited annual accounts and reconciliation statements of the registered taxpayers, which had earlier made traders dependent on chartered and cost accountants. Further, in case of detention, seizure of goods, etc.,the goods can now be released on the payment of a penalty, as against the earlier practice of having to pay a tax as well as the penalty. Read more

PHDCCI President urge the government to bring the petroleum products in the ambit of GST. Read more

Two fake firms that claimed false input tax credit (ITC) and evaded around Rs.20 crore tax by flouting rules of goods and services taxes (GST) has been detected by the commercial taxes department in Patna. The two firms claiming to be dealing in mustard oil and oilseeds are suspected to be shell companies that falsely claimed huge sales in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Read more

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai met Union Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman and said that the funds are required urgently to meet the Covid-19 and other expenses in the state and then asked payment of last year dues in GST compensation of Rs 11,400 crore. The FM has agreed to give it in instalments. Read more

Deputy CM of Delhi said that small changes have been made in 15 sections of the Delhi GST Act to smoothen the GST filing process. He said one of the amendments do away with the need for a mandatory audit and reconciliation of registered traders with a turnover of 1.5 crore and above. Read more

The rationalization of the goods and services tax (GST) structure into three slabs by merging two existing slabs is on the cards, and progress should be seen soon, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry Krishnamurthy Subramanian said on Thursday. Thus, the country should eventually have a GST that will have only slabs of zero, 5% and a standard rate, with luxury and sin goods as an exception. Read more

In connection with a case involving more than Rs 1,000 crore of fake GST (Goods and Services Tax) bills in Bhavnagar, the Gujarat government on Friday transferred 36 officials from Bhavnagar ranging from the deputy state tax commissioner to employees as junior as a clerk. The move is to ensure fair probe into the case where 11 persons have already been arrested in last one month. Read more

The e-way bill generation is set to cross five crore-mark in July, but it is still lower than the all-time high of 7 crore plus registered in March this year. Read more

The GST Council has reduced GST rates on goods being used in COVID related management until September 30. The decision came by the council in its 44th meeting on June 12. Mansukh L Mandaviya, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers in Lok Sabha on Tuesday said that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), on June 15, directed all manufacturers and marketing companies of drugs and medical devices to revise the MRP–maximum retail price of items on which GST and tax rates have been slashed. Read more

No study has been conducted to know the impact of non-uniform GST rates on raw materials, says MoS Textiles. The Revenue Department has informed that an in-principle agreement has been reached on correcting duty inversion in the textiles sector. Read more

In the last four years since the implementation of GST, the major source of revenue leakage has been the unlawful or bogus claims related to Input Tax Credit (ITC) with fictitious invoices, according to the officials. Like this all issues have been thoroughly discussed in the meeting and decisions have been taken on the modalities for sharing data, intelligence, orders, joint investigations, periodic analysis of different sectors, said ” Special Chief Secretary (Revenue-Commercial Taxes) Rajat Bhargava, who chaired the meeting, Read more

The Central GST department has arrested two person in connection with issuance of fake invoices without actual supply of goods. According to officials, the invoices worth Rs.115 crore were issued and in the process caused a loss to state exchequer to the tune of Rs.37 crore. Read more

E-way bill generation for goods transportation under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system has being increasing in July, indicating a gradual pick-up in economic recovery. Read more

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence has detected tax evasion worth Rs.278 crore by bidders who were awarded railway tenders since 2017. To keep a check on evasion, the CBIC’s GST policy wing is also evaluating the legal feasibility of making it compulsory for the recipient or purchaser to mention the HSN code–used for classification of items–of goods or services being procured in business-to-business transactions. Read more