RECENT UPDATES IN GST

[Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal]

The Budget exercise is on and we may have Union Budget 2019 on 5^th July, 2019 preceded by the Economic Survey. Pre-budget consultations are to commenced from 11^th June, 2019. This will include State Governments trade bodies, chambers, economists, banks etc. The Budget session starts from June, 17^th till 26^th  July, 2019. In the back drop of short revenue collection, it is being expected that fiscal deficit may remain at 3.4%. There may also be some manifesto promises being taken care of.

GST Council is expected to meet on 20^th June, 2019, for first time after recent elections. It is expected that it may fix ₹ 50 crore turnover threshold for e-invoices, consider scaling down of GST collections targets owing to rate cuts, finalize new returns from July, 2019 etc.  MOF has laid down road map for implementation of new GST returns system including transition mechanism on trail basis from July, 2019.

It is also expected that on some more items, tax rates may be reduced including some items being shifted from 28% slab and 18% slab. These may include motor vehicles, FMCG goods, construction sector etc and area where growth is slowing down. Decisions on e-invoicing, discounts, simplification of returns, fate of anti-profiteering provision, ITC issues etc are some other issues which may be addressed.

So far as GST collections are concerned, the revenue has surpassed ‘one lakh crore’ mark yet again in May, 2019, third month in row, which indicates stabilization of revenue collection. It has been ₹ 1,00,289 crore as against ₹ 94,016 crore in May, 2018. April, 2019 saw an all time high collection ₹ 1,13,000 crore with GST targets for financial year 2019-20 being higher by 35% over previous year (₹ 4.5 trillion in 2019, ₹ 6.10 trillion in 2020). Tax Collectors are expected to be rough and tough with tax evaders. Income tax and GSTN have already entered into a MOU for sharing of information.

Recent Updates on GST

5. Transition plan to the new GST Return

• The GST Council in its 31st meeting decided to introduce a new GST return system which shall have three main components:- one main return (FORM GST RET-1) and two annexures (FORM GST ANX-1 and FORM GST ANX-2)
• In May, 2019 a prototype of the offline tool was been shared on the common portal.
• From July, 2019 to September, 2019, users under a trial program would be able to:

• upload invoices using the FORM GST ANX-1 offline tool
• view and download the inward supply of invoices using the FORM GST ANX-2

• This trial would have no impact at the back end on the tax liability or input tax credit and the taxpayers would continue to fulfil their compliances by filing FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B.
• From October, 2019 onwards, FORM GST ANX-1 shall be made compulsory and FORM GSTR-1 would be replaced by FORM GST ANX-1.
• Large taxpayers would upload their monthly FORM GST ANX-1 from October, 2019 onwards and small taxpayers would upload their quarterly (October to December, 2019) FORM GST ANX-1 in January, 2020.
• For October and November, 2019, large taxpayers would continue to file FORM GSTR-3B on monthly basis. They would file their first FORM GST RET-01 for the month of December, 2019 by 20th January, 2020.
• The small taxpayers would stop filing FORM GSTR-3B and would start filing FORM GST PMT-08 from October, 2019 onwards. They would file their first FORM GST-RET-01 for the quarter October, 2019 to December, 2019 from 20th January, 2020.
• From January, 2020 onwards, all taxpayers shall be filing FORM GST RET-01 and FORM GSTR-3B shall be completely phased out.

[Source: CBIC Press release dated 11.06.2019]

5. Clarifications on filing of Annual Return (FORM GSTR-9)

• Input tax credit on inward supplies received in 2017-2018 but availed in April, 2018 to March, 2019 shall be declared in Table 8C of FORM GSTR-9.
• Transactions relating to financial year 2017-18 but declared in returns from  April, 2018 to March, 2019 shall be declared in Part V of FORM GSTR-9.
• The basis of declaring a supply in Part II or Part V of GSTR-9 shall be when tax was paid through FORM GSTR-3B and not when the supply was declared in FORM GSTR-1  i.e.,  if the tax on such supply was paid through FORM GSTR-3B from July ,2017 to March, 2018, then such supply shall be declared in Part II and if the tax was paid through FORM GSTR-3B between April, 2018 to March, 2019 ,then such supply shall be declared in Part V of FORM GSTR-9.
• System generated Form GSTR-9 is a functionality provided to taxpayers for facilitation purposes only and if there is any mismatch between auto-populated data and the actual entry in the books of accounts or returns, taxpayers shall report the data in Form GSTR-9 as per their books of account or returns filed during the financial year.
• Any outward supply which was not declared in Form GSTR-1 and Form GSTR-3B is to be declared in Part II of Form GSTR-9 and additional liability on such outward supply is to  be computed in Part IV and the gap between the “tax payable” and “paid through cash” column of Form GSTR-9 is to be paid through Form DRC-03.
• Payments made through Form DRC-03 for any supplies relating to period between July 2017 to March 2018 shall not be accounted for in FORM GSTR-9 but shall be reported during reconciliation in Form GSTR-9C.

[Source: CBIC Press release dated 04.06.2019]

5. IGST Credit accrued in financial year 2017-2018 not to lapse if not availed

• Form GSTR-9 does not allow a taxpayer to report details of Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) paid on imports made in financial year 2017-18 but credit for the same was availed in financial year 2018-19.
• There were apprehensions that credit which was availed from April, 2018 to March, 2019 but not reported in the annual return may lapse.
• CBIC has now clarified that input tax credit accrued on import of goods by paying GST in 2017-18 shall not lapse even if the taxpayer has not claimed credit in the same financial year and details of entire credit availed on import of goods from July, 2017 to March, 2019 shall be shown in Table 6(E) of FORM GSTR-9.

[Source: CBIC Press release dated 04.06.2019]

5. Additional liability in GSTR-9 and its payment

• Additional liability not reported at the time of filing of Form GSTR-3B for the financial year 2017-2018 can be declared in Form GSTR-9.
• The additional liability so declared is required to be paid through Form GST DRC-03.
• If available cash balance in Electronic Cash Ledger is less than the amount required to offset the liabilities, then additional cash required to be paid by taxpayer is shown in the "Additional Cash Required" column. However, a challan may also be created for the additional cash directly by clicking on the Create Challan button.

[Source: @askGSTech]