What has the 27th GST council meeting brought in for the average taxpayer?
The nation is undeniably heading on the path of deliberate fiscal consolidation as aggregate GST revenue have now touched trillion-mark in the month of April this year. No wonder, this overwhelming boom is to augment even more in the coming months as the GST council in its 27th meeting that was held via video conferencing.
With keen intent for enforcement of important IT measures, the Group of Ministers have decided on complete take over the GST Network, the IT backbone of GST, and convert it into the wholly government-owned entity, with an equal stake of States and Centre.
The meeting has yielded incredible outcomes as regards ease of availing input credit and agricultural growth. It has, however, remained silent on simplification of the GST return filing procedure.
Given below are the highpoints of the 27th GST council meeting:
#1. Which goods are likely to witness GST rate cuts?
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In order to give impetus to a cashless economy, the meeting has proposed a steep concession on GST @ 2% on B2C supplies, if the payment is made digitally or through cheque, subject to a ceiling of INR 100 per transaction.
This can better be understood with the help of a case study given below-
Suppose T buys a pizza worth INR 400/- on which 5% GST is levied, then he will have to pay-
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INR 412/-, i.e. 400+3% GST (12/-) due to the 2% concession, in case he pays online or through cheque, or
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INR 420/-, i.e. 400+5% GST (20/-), in case he pays the bill in cash.
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The government has also suggested a reduction of GST on ethanol, however, no sure decision has been taken in this regard.
The government has decided to implement the above-mentioned measures within next 2 weeks.
#2. Which goods will get costlier?
Sugar will get costlier by INR 3/- per kg. As to bolster the availability of funds for the sugarcane cultivators, the government has introduced an additional cess of INR 3/- per kg over and above 5% GST.
#3. What are the provisions for simplification of GST return filing?
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As of now, the two types of GST returns, i.e. GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B will be followed till next 6 months according to the existing GST return filing model. The council is still working on the simplification of the GST return filing procedure, that involves fusion of the two return filing models. This will imply that single return filing model will continue that mandates 12 returns a year, instead of 36.
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The council has proposed that after the introduction of the fusion model after six months, a transitional phase of 6 months will begin, during which the taxpayers will be allowed to claim and avail the provisional credit on the basis of self-calculations.
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If a taxpayer fails to claim the input credit during this transitional period and has not either paid the GST liability when noticed during uploading of his invoices, all the taxes will be recovered from him. No provisional credit will be claimed after the transitional period.
#4. Why has the GST council decided to completely takeover GSTN?
The council has taken this decision for IT enhancement and removal of the technical glitches while GST registration and the GST return filing procedure.
For instance, after the government takeover of GSTN, the authority will introduce a mechanism wherein a buyer will be able to track the invoices uploaded by the seller and thus he will be able to trace the gap between the credit claimed and credit availed by him.
Evidently, there will be need of more personnel for implementing such measures, thus there will be a scope of more employment.
#5. What measures will be taken for easy availing input credit?
The simplified single return filing pattern will specify details of inward and outward supplies and will allow better invoice matching. This will prevent delay of confirmations from the recipient or lengthy tasks of uploading sale/purchase details for claiming input credit.
If you need any assistance regarding GST registration in India or GST return filing online, feel free to contact us at 8881-069-069.