The financial year 2018-19 (FY19) ended on a happy note on the goods and services tax (GST) front. At Rs 1.06 trillion, the government has announced the highest monthly collection from GST in March since its roll-out 21 months ago. This is the fourth time in FY19 that the monthly GST collection has crossed the Rs 1-trillion mark, meeting the target. With this, the total GST collected during the year has touched Rs 11.77 trillion, still nearly Rs 75,000 crore short of the initial annual expectation. Even so, the GST mop-up, together with the direct tax collection of Rs 11.5 trillion (against a ..read more

Faced with the big challenge of tackling fake invoicing in GST regime, tax officials are looking at different strategies to curb this menace and shore up revenue collections. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Member (Investigation) had recently said that between April and February 2018-19, GST evasion to the tune of ₹20,000 crore was detected, of which ₹10,000 crore was recovered. Officials estimate that evasion through fake and under-invoicing could be pegged at anywhere between one per cent and five per cent of collection. Tax officials at both the Centre and States have reg ..read more

Officials of the Central GST have unearthed an alleged tax fraud of Rs 224 crore and detected fake invoices worth Rs 1,289 crore by a group of eight companies involved in the trade of iron and steel products. A key suspect involved in the racket has been arrested and Rs 19.75 crore was recovered from him, a press release from the Hyderabad Central GST Commissionerate said Tuesday night. Several documents were recovered during the simultaneous searches conducted at the residential and business premises of these companies on Tuesday night. The companies have been generating fake invoices without ..read more

The GST Council is likely to meet next week via video-conferencing to approve the rules related to under-construction buildings. It will clarify the grey areas governing the rule, according to a senior finance ministry official.In its last meeting, the council had reduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate for under-construction buildings from 12 per cent to 5 per cent and on projects under affordable housing from 8 per cent to 1 per cent. However, there were many grey areas left, over which developers have been seeking clarification. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) met s ..read more

The goods and services tax (GST) network released the revised return forms which businesses would need to comply with from this year. The new forms would be operated on a pilot basis from April 1, 2019, and would be mandated across the country from July, according to the decisions of the GST Council. The new and revised return format would obviate the need to furnish returns under the family of GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3, but the annual return GSTR-9 might continue, experts said. The GST Council had suspended GSTR-2, a purchase return, and GSTR-3, input-output return, because of the complex for ..read more

The Finance Ministry on Thursday asked trade and industry to exercise caution while filing the annual GST returns form as the facility to revise it is not available. In a statement, the ministry said the annual returns form is now available on the common portal for filing and asked Goods and Services Tax (GST) payers to file their returns at the earliest. The ministry had on December 31, 2018, notified the annual returns forms GSTR-9, GSTR-9A and GSTR-9C. The GST Council had in December extended the last date for filing these forms by three months to June 30, 2019. GSTR-9 is the annual return ..read more

The anti-profiteering body has held that US pharmaceutical company Abbott Healthcare did not pass on the benefits of the goods and services tax to customers after the new regime started in July 2017 and the rate was further reduced in November that year. Abbott had instead increased the price of a cream after GST became effective, the National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) said in an order on its website on Tuesday, fining the company and a pharmacy 96.59 lakh for profiteering rom GST. Although the order pertains to only one product, the NAA will now investigate all products sold by Abbott ..read more

The government last month slashed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the real estate sector, but along with that it also did away with the input tax credit (ITC), which experts and analysts feel goes against the very purpose of tracking the money trail and curbing black money. Under-construction properties and affordable housing are the latest segments under GST, after restaurants, to have been denied ITC, by virtue of the rate cut, to 5 per cent or below. ITC is the credit available for all taxes paid on inputs across the value-chain to make production transparent and efficient as well as cr ..read more

The government has detected Rs 20,000 crore worth GST evasion so far this fiscal and will take more steps to check frauds and increase compliance, a senior tax officer said Wednesday. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Member (Investigation) John Joseph further said the department would soon call a meeting of the representatives of the real estate sector to understand transition issues faced by the sector post reduction in GST rates. The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts, earlier this week decided to cut tax rates on under-construc ..read more

Demand for residential properties is expected to receive a major boost following the government’s decision to cut the goods & services tax (GST) rates for under construction projects to 5% from effective rate of 12%. In a major push to stated objective of ‘Housing For All by 2022’, the government has reduced GST to marginal 1% for affordable housing while revising the definition of such homes. Prior to this, under-construction residential properties attracted rate of 18% and effective rate of 12% after factoring one-third abatement for the value of land. The effective GST rate for affordab ..read more