Now that we have a popular Government in place, all eyes are on Modi Government 2.0 to see that business and economy grows and comes out of the present ‘slow zone’. RBI Governor has also warned of the slower economic growth which needs to be addressed on top priority.
The Parliament’s Budget session is on. The joint address by President of India to both houses touched upon industrial measures, investments, economic development, ease of doing business etc. also emphasized on law reforms including that in company law and tax reforms. Accordingly, taxation regime plays an important role on accelerating economic development and that simplification of taxation system was being emphasized. He also assured of Government’s will to further continue simplify the GST regime.
35th meeting of the GST Council took place on 21st June, 2019, first one for current Union Finance Minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sitaraman and under the new Government’s tenure.
Major recent changes in GST
Recommendations of GST Council Meeting held on 21.06.2019 at New Delhi
- GST returns
- New return system
A new return system is likely to be introduced in a phased manner, as follows:
- Form GST ANX-1 & ANX -2 shall be available on trial basis, during period from July, 2019 to September, 2019. But Form GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B shall also be filed during the said period.
- From October, 2019 onwards Form GST ANX-1 is to be made compulsory, where
- Large taxpayers (aggregate turnover of previous year is more than 5 crores) shall be required to file GST ANX-1 on monthly basis.
- Small taxpayers to file first GST ANX-1 for quarter October, 2019 to December, 2019 in January, 2020.
- Large taxpayers shall be required to file
- Form GSTR-3B & GSTR-1 for October & November, 2019
- First Form GST RET-01 for December, 2019 in January, 2020
- Form ANX-2 may be viewed from October, 2019 onwards but no action shall be allowed on such Form.
- Small taxpayers shall
- stop filing GSTR-3B & start filing Form GST PMT-08, from October, 2019.
- File their first Form GST RET-01 for quarter October 2019 to December, 2019 in January, 2020.
From January, 2020 onwards, FORM GSTR-3B shall be completely phased out.
- Extension of due dates
Due date filing few returns and form have been extended as follows:
- E-way Bills
Rule 138E of the CGST rules, pertaining to blocking of e-way bills on non-filing of returns for two consecutive tax periods, to be brought into effect from 21.08.2019, instead of the earlier notified date of 21.06.2019.
(Notification No. 25/2019-Central Tax dated 21.06.2019)
- GST Rates
The Council has recommended following GST rate related changes on supply of goods and services:
- Electric Vehicles
Fitment committee shall examine the issues relating to GST concessions on electric vehicle, charger and hiring of electric vehicle and shall be brought before the Council in the next meeting.
- Solar Power Generating Systems and Wind Turbines
Fitment committee shall examine the issue related to valuation of goods and services in a solar power generating system and wind turbine and shall be brought before the Council in the next meeting.
- Lottery
After deliberations on the various issues on rate of lottery, the Council recommended that certain issues relating to taxation (rates and destination principle) would require legal opinion of Learned Attorney General.
- Other important decisions
- Decision regarding location of the State and the Area Benches for the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) for various States and the Union Territories with legislature has been taken by Council and decided to have a common State Bench for the States of Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
- The tenure of National Anti-Profiteering Authority has been extended by 2 years.
- It has also been decided to introduce electronic invoicing system in a phase-wise manner for B2B transactions. The Phase 1 is proposed to be voluntary and it shall be rolled-out from January 2020.
- Utilization of ITC as per Rule 88A of the CGST Rules, 2017
- CBIC vide Circular No. 98/17/2019-GST dated April 23, 2019 inserted Rule 88A of the CGST Rules, 2017 which allows utilization of IGST credit towards the payment of CGST and SGST/ UTGST, in any order subject to the condition that the entire ITC on account of IGST is completely exhausted first before the ITC on account of CGST or SGST/ UTGST can be utilized.
- GSTN has now enabled utilization of ITC for the purpose of payment of taxes at the time of filing GSTR 3B from June 11, 2019. Therefore, taxpayers would be able to file their GSTR 3B returns for the month of May, 2019 as per the order of set off mentioned in Rule 88A of the CGST Rules, 2017.
[Source : GSTN]
- Audit Plan for the Financial Year 2019-2020
- The audits under GST have not commenced as last date of filing the Annual Return is 30th June, 2019 which makes the relevant data available to the Department for the purpose of audit.
- Board has approved to commence audits under GST from 1st July, 2019 which initially be limited to those taxpayers who have filed Annual GSTR-9 return.
- For this purpose, instructions will be issued separately.
- A list of taxpayers with risk scores may also be send to the field formations to enable selection of taxpayers to conduct GST audits.
[Source : GSTN]
- Important points to be noted while filing Form GSTR 9C
- Form GSTR 9C is to be filed where turnover has exceeded ₹ 2 crore in a financial year. The period to be taken for turnover calculation is from 1st April, 2017 to 31st March, 2018 i.e if a taxpayer has a turnover of ₹ 2.1 Cr for the period 1st April, 2017 to 31st March, 2018 and a turnover of ₹ 1.9 Cr for the period 1st July, 2017 to 31st March, 2018, then the taxpayer is required to file form GSTR 9C.
- While filing Part B of Form GSTR 9C, auditors are advised to give their membership number without prefixing '0' in their membership number. So, if membership number is '016' then auditor must enter '16' on the Portal in the membership number field and not '016'.
- Microsoft excel version higher than 2007 should be used for preparation of Form GSTR 9C.
[Source : @askGSTech]
All eyes are now on forthcoming Union Budget 2019-20, slated for 5th July, 2019.
