According to FM, India’s economic growth for March, 2024 may be 8% or more, resulting in 2023-24 having a GDP growth 8% or over 8%. The growth was 8.4% in Q3. India is likely to be set for another year of robust growth in the financial year beginning April 1, 2024 (2024-25, or FY25), with inflation projected to ease closer to the Reserve Bank of India’s comfort zone, which may allow it to start the rate-cut cycle. However, risks may stem from global factors such as slower-than-expected global growth, higher commodity prices, and geopolitical turbulence, which may adversely impact growth and macro-stability.
India is under election mode and the new Government will be known on 4th June, 2024. If the same Government is repeated, continuity of policies and reforms will get a boost. The same would apply to GST also. Keeping election in mind, there will be no GST Council meeting till new Government comes in i.e., no GST Council meeting in first six months of 2024, which may delay crucial GST decisions and reforms.
The processes of selection of Members for GST Appellate Tribunal is on and the last date for applications has just been over. Now the applicant’s screening, interview etc shall commence and we may have benches of Tribunal in place soon. It is hoped that the selection process shall eventually turn out some best of talent, intellect and honest people to sit on the benches. The role of GSTAT is going to be the challenging as the phase of litigation in GST is all set to roll. While first seven years of GST in India focused on procedures and smoothening the processes, now is the time for settlement and resolution of GST disputes. It should be ensured that resolution is fast, honest, and sustainable in future judicial scrutiny. There should be no room for allowing pendency to build up into huge back-logs.
CBIC has issued guidelines for CGST field formation in maintaining ease of doing business while engaging in investigation with regular taxpayer. Obviously, this is a welcome move, may be at this time when country goes to polls.
GST collection has once again been robust in March, 2024. GST collection is second highest monthly Gross GST Revenue collection in March, 2024 at Rs. 1.78 lakh crore which records 11.5% y-o-y growth (18.4% on net basis). FY 2023-24 marks a milestone with total gross GST collection of Rs. 20.14 lakh crore exceeding Rs.20 lakh crore, a 11.7% increase compared to the previous year.
Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling – Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
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Name of Union territory of Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling
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Designation of the Member
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Dadra and Diu
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(i) Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Vadodara Zone;
(ii) Commissioner, (Union territory Goods and Services Tax), Union territory of Daman and Diu.
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Dadra and Nagar Haveli
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(i) Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Vadodara Zone;
(ii) Commissioner, (Union territory Goods and Services Tax), Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli
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Name of Union territory of Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling
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Designation of the Member
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Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
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(i) Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Vadodara Zone;
(ii) Commissioner, (Union territory Goods and Services Tax), Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
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- This shall come into force w.e.f. 28.03.2024.
(Source: Notification No. 1/2024- Union Territory Tax dated 28.03.2024)
Guidelines for GST Investigations of Regular Taxpayers
- CBIC has issued Guidelines for CGST field formations in maintaining ease of doing business while engaging in investigation with regular taxpayers.
- These guidelines shall be followed in the CGST Zones while engaging in investigation, subject to legal provisions or instructions.
- The (Pr.) Commissioner shall be responsible for developing and approving any intelligence, conducting search, and completing investigation in a case and the relevant subsequent action, including in the divisional formations, etc.
- For information / intelligence inter CGST field formation, it shall be forwarded by the (Pr.) Commissioner to the concerned CGST field formation or DGGI, as the case may be.
- Conclusion of investigation may also take the form of recording that investigation is not being pursued further as nothing objectionable was found in terms of matter investigated.
(Source: Instruction No. 01/2023-24 GST (Inv.) dated 30.03.2024
issued by Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue)
CBIC SOP on Preventive Vigilance Mechanism during election
- CBIC has issued Standard Operating Procedure for stepping up of Preventive Vigilance Mechanism by the jurisdictional CBIC field formations and to prevent flow of suspicious cash, illicit liquor, drugs/narcotics, freebies and smuggled goods during elections.
- This is in compliance of instructions issued by Election Commission of India regarding reporting of Major Seizures (more than rupees one crore) during the elections and implementation of Electronic Seizure Management System (ESMS) for reporting interception/seizures made by various enforcement agencies on real time basis.
- This will ensure coordinated and focused attention including proper sharing of information by the field formations of CBIC and all other agencies concerned for ensuring smooth and fair elections. In this regard, the below mentioned SOP is to be followed by formations of CBIC to ensure conduct of free and fair elections.
- The Pr. DG, DRI, Pr. DG, DGGI, Pr. Chief Commissioner/ Chief Commissioners of Customs, Customs (Prev.) and CGST Zones concerned shall be responsible for bringing any matter that is highly sensitive or grave to the immediate notice of the Chairman, CBIC/ Member (CM), CBIC/ Commissioner (Investigation-Customs), CBIC with a copy marked to Commissioner (Investigation-GST), CBIC.
- The Pr. DG, DRI and Pr. DG, DGGI shall establish a Central Control Room at Hqrs. and a Control Room in each State/ UT concerned. They shall also designate a Nodal officer at Hqrs. and in each State/ UT concerned.
- The Central Control Room in the States/ UT's and Nodal Officers concerned shall maintain a proper record of incidents and activities that have a bearing on the free and fair election process and immediately inform the same to the Pr. ADG/ ADG, DRI in the respective State/ UT.
[Source: Instruction No. 06/2024-Customs dated 23.03.2024 issued by CBIC, Investigation - Customs (F.No. CBIC-21/125/2021-1NV-CUSTOMS-CBEC]
Rectification of Assessment Orders u/s 161 -NCT of Delhi
- Department of Trade & Taxes, Government of NCT of Delhi has issued instructions for rectification of assessment orders under section 161 of GST law for the Financial Year 2017-18 which revises the earlier instructions dated 01.03.2024.
- This would cover cases where proper officer has stated that no SCN reply was filed but factually, it was filed and not considered by the adjudicating authority.
- Multiple show cause notices on same subject matter for the same tax period resulting in multiple orders can be covered under section 161 after verification. If the subject matter of SCNs / Orders are different, it would not fall under the ambit of rectification.
- Section 161 can also be invoked where Annexure to SCN was not attached or wrong Annexure was attached and SCN was replied but not considered.
[Source: Instruction F. No. 3(543)/GST /Policy /2024/1355-60 dated 21.03.2024
issued by Deptt. of Trade & Taxes, Government of NCT of Delhi]
DGGI Guidelines for conducting Investigation
- The officers of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) across the country at its Headquarter, the 26 Zonal Units (ZU) and 40 Regional Units (RU) have all-India jurisdiction for the purposes of their role in the compliance management framework of Goods and Services tax (GST) and Central Excise. Under GST, investigation may be made by DGGI or jurisdictional CGST formations or the States.
- CBIC has approved a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) for officials of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) to improve the ease of doing business and prevent any incident of harassment of taxpayers during tax investigations, summons, and searches.
- SOP mandates officials to stick to Goods and Services Tax (GST) cases within their zonal units for investigation, skip investigation which fall under the ambit of audit and scrutiny and issue summons with specific details of subject of enquiry and clear timelines and not for vague and piecemeal information, which can be submitted in written.
- This supersedes earlier guidelines dated 18.09.2023 as amended on 08.12.2023.
[Source: F.No. DGGI/17/2023-INV-O/o Pr DG-DGGI-HQ-DELHI(1) dated 08.02.2024
issued by DGGI, New Delhi]
Suspending Scroll for IGST / RoDTEP / RoSCTL / Drawback
- Directorate General of Systems and Data Management (DGSDM) has decided to temporarily suspend scroll for IGST refund w.e.f. 00:00 Hours of 21.03.2024 to 23:59 Hours of 31.03.2024 and scroll for RoDTEP, RoSCTL and Drawback w.e.f. 00:00 Hours of 25.03.2024 to 23:59 Hours of 31.03.2024.
- Filed formations may generate the pending scroll before the above mentioned dates.
[Source: Advisory No. 07/2024 (Exports) dated 19.03.2024
issued by Directorate General of Systems and Data Management, CBIC]
Auto population of HSN summary in GSTR-1
- GSTN has enabled auto population of HSN-wise summary of outward supplies in Form GSTR-1 in Table 12.
- This will provide an option to taxpayers to import HSN data in GSTR-1 from e-invoices where e-invoices are generated.
- Only where e-invoices are not generated, manual entry will have to be done.
- This would save time for HSN entry in case there are only B2B supplies.
(Source: GSTN Portal)
GST Collection in March, 2024
- Gross Good and Services Tax (GST) revenue for March, 2024 has witnessed the second highest collection ever at Rs.1.78 lakh crore, with a 11.5% year-on-year growth. Which is driven by a significant rise in GST collection from domestic transactions at 17.6%.
- The break-up of March, 2024 tax collection is Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST): Rs.34,532 crore; State Goods and Services Tax (SGST): Rs.43,746 crore; Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST): Rs.87,947 crore, including Rs.40,322 crore collected on imported goods and Cess: Rs.12,259 crore, including Rs.996 crore collected on imported goods.
- States with higher tax growth include J & K, Nagaland, Tripura, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Karnataka and Ladakh. States like Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Andaman have shown a negative growth.
(Source: Press Release ID 2016802 dated 01.04.2024)
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