GST COMPLIANCES REQUIRING ATTENTION NOW

[Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal]

31^st March, 2018 marks the end of Financial Year 2017-18, first fiscal year of GST and last year of service tax. This is also the transitional year for migration and as such crucial for taxpayers to migrate balances and tax credits fully but accurately. This calls for due diligence and careful closing of financial books of accounts.

Here are few action points in the new financial year for immediate compliance under GST in April, 2018 for the new Financial Year 2018-19.

Annual Reconciliation of Books and GST returns

For this, assessees are required to reconcile the sale ledger/ GST liability / cash ledger/ credit ledger as per books of accounts and as per GST returns. Further, in case there is any difference, then company is required to take the effect of the same in March, 2018, GSTR 3B and GSTR 1.

New Invoice Series

A registered person may develop the new series of all documents to be issued or may continue the same bill book (but however to be serially numbered) like Tax invoice. Export invoice, Bill of supply, Receipt voucher, Payment voucher, Refund voucher, Debit note, Credit note, Delivery challans for new Financial Year 2018-19.

Requirements as per Rule 46(b) of the CGST Rules, 2017:

• A new bill book is suggested to be maintained for every new Financial Year. However, there is no restriction if the registered person continue the same bill book though to be serially numbered.
• This bill book has to be unique (using mixture of alphabets, numbers, hyphen, etc.) and consecutively numbered. In case of electronic billing, bills are generated through system.
• The maximum digits allowed are 16, including special characters, if any. (For e.g., 01/2018, UP/01/2018, RCPT/01/2018-19 etc.)

Input Tax Credit

• To be able to claim input tax credit of an invoice, its payment must be made within 180 days as per second proviso of section 16(2) of CGST Act, 2017. If the payment is not made, the credit taken on that invoice must be reversed. And whenever such payment is made credit may be taken then. By this logic, invoices issued before 1st October, 2017 must have been paid by 31st March, 2018. If not, you’ll have to reverse the input credit claimed. This requires proper ageing analysis of outstanding debtors and creditors.

• Filing of TRAN 2 for the period July, 2017 to December, 2017 has been extended to be filed by 30^th June, 2018. Earlier, it was to be filed by 31^st March, 2018.

• In the past, there have been many instances and complaints that assessees were not able to file TRAN-1 which was required to carry forward balances of input credit pertaining to old tax regime (excise, service tax, VAT) due to technical snags. There were many writ petitions filed across the country and various high courts directed  the Government to allow further opportunity to the tax payers who could not file TRAN-1. [M/s. Arihant Superstructure Limited v. The Union of India through the Commissioner (GST), The Commissioner, Central Goods and Service Tax (2018) 3 TMI 1268 (Rajasthan); Continental India Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India 2018 (1) TMI 1245 - ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT ; KTL (P) Ltd. v. Union of India 2018 (3) TMI 679 - ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT ].

• Opportunity to file TRAN 1 has been made available for assessee’s who had earlier submitted the TRAN -1 but could not file due to technical difficulties by 30.04.2018 [Circular 39/13/2018-GST dated 03.04.2018].

• Accordingly, it has now been decided that all such taxpayers, who tried but were not able to complete TRAN-1 procedure (original or revised) of filing them on or before 27.12.2017 due to IT-glitch, shall be provided the facility to complete TRAN-1 filing. It has been clarified that the last date for filing of TRAN 1 is not extended in general and only these identified taxpayers shall be allowed to complete the process of filing TRAN-1. The taxpayer shall not be allowed to amend the amount of credit in TRAN-1 during this process vis-à-vis the amount of credit which was recorded by the taxpayer in the TRAN-1, which could not be filed.

• The taxpayers are allowed to complete the process of filing of TRAN 1 stuck due to IT glitches, as discussed above, by 30th April 2018 and the process of completing filing of GSTR 3B which could not be filed for such TRAN 1 shall be completed by 31st May 2018.

It may be noted that this extention is not for all taxpayers who did not file TRAN-1 but only for those who attempted to file but were not successful. This will be verified from GSTN audit trail.

Application / Renewal of LUT

Exporters making zero rates supplies have to furnish an LUT to the jurisdictional commissioner. An LUT is valid for one financial year. Therefore, LUT tendered in FY 2017-18 was valid until 31st March, 2018 only. Exporters who wish to continue to export under LUT need to submit a fresh LUT for FY 2018-19 to have this facility renewed.

Vide Circular No. 40 dated 06.04.2018, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has clarified to simplify LUT filing as follows:  

1. Form for LUT: The registered person (exporters) shall fill and submit FORM GST RFD-11 on the common portal. An LUT shall be deemed to be accepted as soon as an acknowledgement for the same, bearing the Application Reference Number (ARN), is generated online.
2. Documents for LUT: No document needs to be physically submitted to the jurisdictional office for acceptance of LUT.
3. Acceptance of LUT/bond: An LUT shall be deemed to have been accepted as soon as an acknowledgement for the same, bearing the Application Reference Number (ARN), is generated online. If it is discovered that an exporter whose LUT has been so accepted, was ineligible to furnish an LUT in place of bond as per Notification No. 37/2017-Central Tax, then the exporter’s LUT will be liable for rejection. In case of rejection, the LUT shall be deemed to have been rejected ab initio.

Thus, LUT will be deemed to be accepted as soon as ARN is generated and no documents need to be submitted in physical form to the tax office.

Use of E-way Bills

1^st April has become a land mark date in the GST journey, as it marks the advent of e-way bills in the country under the GST regime, a tool to check tax evasion and bring in operational efficiency so far as taxpayers and logistics management is concerned.

Date of Introduction of e-way bills is 1st April, 2018 for inter-state movement of goods.

Every registered person who causes movement of goods of consignment value exceeding fifty thousand rupees (including tax)-

• in relation to supply, or
• for the reasons other than supply, or
• due to inward supply from unregistered person,

shall require to furnish an e-way bill. No e-way bill is required if the value of the goods in an individual consignment is less than ₹ 50,000/- even if the total value of all such consignments in a single conveyance is more than ₹ 50,000/-

Following persons are liable to generate e-way bill :

• Registered person as consignor or consignee of goods in his own or hired conveyance.
• Registered person - for movement of goods to him caused by unregistered person
• Transporter of goods - in the case of non generation by registered person.
• Unregistered person – movement of goods in his own or hired conveyance
• Transporter of unregistered person – in case unregistered person has not generated

One can register on the portal of e-way bill namely http://ewaybillgst.gov.in by using GSTIN. If you don't have GSTIN, then you can enroll on the portal without GSTIN too.

Compliance with new Dates

Now that most of the dates for various returns have been further extended from April to June 2018, compliance burden under GST hangs on and it is becoming increasingly difficult for taxpayers to keep track and comply with.

Following are the compliances for the month of April, 2018

Particulars	To whom applicable	Period	Due date
GSTR-1 (Monthly)	Taxpayers with annual aggregate turnover more than ₹ 1.5 crore	Feb 2018	10.04.2018
GSTR 4	Composition dealers	Jan – Mar 2018	18.04.2018
GST Payment	All taxpayers	March 2018	20.04.2018
FORM 3B	All taxpayers	March 2018	20.04.2018
GSTR 5	Non-resident taxable persons	March 2018	20.04.2018
GSTR 5A	Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval (OIDAR)	March 2018	20.04.2018
GSTR 1	Taxpayers with annual aggregate turnover upto ₹ 1.5 crore	Jan – Mar 2018	30.04.2018
TRAN 1	Taxpayers who failed to file TRAN 1 due to IT glitches		30.04.2018

Now that most of the returns will be filed in next three months, it appears that another major GST reforms / amendments may take place w.e.f. July, 2018, when it completes first year of levy of GST in the country. GST Council has had 26 meetings so far and yet lot of issues have to be ironed out, the most crucial being technical interface.

Accounting Standard on Revenue

W.e.f. 1.4.2018, a new Accounting Standard Ind AS 115 on revenue recognition comes into force whereby companies will measure, recognize and disclose revenues in their financial statements. This provides for additional disclosures and enhanced transparency. This calls for comprehensive understanding of new revenue recognition standard.