Modi A R & Co

Tax officials may go for searches, surveys to widen base
under GST
In its attempt to bring more companies under the goods and services
tax (GST) umbrella, the tax department is planning to conduct
searches and surveys across the country, a senior tax official told ET.
The searches could start as early as next week and would focus on
checking if any company was deliberately avoiding to come under
GST umbrella or if there is a genuine problem, said the official. Tax
officers would conduct physical verification of premises in several
areas and check the GST certificates in cases where they have been
issued.
The move comes about a week after a meeting of senior tax officials
with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley
in New Delhi.
"As you know that the government is working towards increasing the tax base," the official said. "So we recently received directions
that new registrations under GST have to be increased. In that regard we will conduct surveys across the country to find out the
eligible businesses that have still not registered with us. So our officers will be soon on field to get this moving."
Industry insiders said many companies and businessmen, especially in some unorganised sectors, are deliberately avoiding to come
under GST because they fear tax sleuths would go after their past unpaid taxes.
Experts welcomed the government's push to increase tax base but said it should not lead to harassment of people with genuine
issues. "I don't see anything wrong with searches as it's obvious that the government wants to expand the GST base and they want to
come hard on people who are evading taxes," said Pratik Jain, national leader -indirect tax, at PwC India.
"But there should be some guidance by the GST Council in the form of a circular or instruction to ensure that there is no harassment
at the ground level and officers differentiate between people evading taxes and genuine problems a company may be facing," he
said.
Under the current push, tax officers would visit premises of several businesses, especially in the industrial areas. In some way, officers
have already started doing this. ET had first reported on July 8 that about 200 senior IAS, IRS and IFS officers have been asked to
check if essential commodities are available across cities and small towns and if any noticeable price trends are visible.
These officials are going around in local markets from Vadodara in Gujarat and Mayurbhanj in Odisha to Rajouri in Jammu & Kashmir
and Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu to check whether GST is being implemented as intended. In one such incident, a cloth retailer in the
National Capital Region was reportedly fined Rs 20,000 for selling shirts without paying GST on that.
"Such fines are required; there has to be some fear if anyone is breaking the law," said a second tax officer aware of the development.
"Some people have also found loopholes and are staying out of GST net," the officer said.
The tax department's renewed push comes weeks after the Haryana excise and taxation department asked its tax officers to conduct
searches on companies in the state.
In a circular issued on August 10, the department mentioned eight points that tax officers have to follow along with a timeline for each
process

Businesses can start filing July returns from 5 Aug - GSTN

The first tax returns under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST)
regime can be filed from Saturday and the facility will remain open till
20 August, GST Network Chairman Navin Kumar said on Thursday.
Businesses can start filing their first GST returns and pay taxes for
July on the portal of GST Network -- the IT infrastructure provider for
the new indirect tax regime, beginning August 5, he told PTI here.
To make compliance easy for businesses, the GST Council has
allowed businesses to initially file their returns on self-assessment
basis in the first two months of the GST rollout. So, the GST returns
for July and August will be filed on the Goods and Services Tax
Network (GSTN) portal by filling up GSTR 3B form.
"We will start the facility of filing interim return form GSTR 3B by August 5 and any registered entity who has transacted business in
July will have to file the return by August 20," Kumar said.
GSTN has tied up with 25 agency banks authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to collect taxes, he said.
"We have tied up with all major banks, both private and public. The facility for tax payment is already on and Integrated GST is being
collected. Along with filing of returns by August 20, payments for central and state GST will also come in," said Kumar, in-charge of
the biggest technology backbone created for the new indirect tax regime.
Over 71.30 lakh excise, service tax and VAT payers have migrated to the GSTN portal with 13 lakh fresh registrations.
The final GST returns for July will have to be filed by these businesses by 5 September instead of 10 August.
Companies will have to file sale invoice for August with GST Network by 20 September instead of 10 September earlier.
The sales returns for September will have to be filed by 10 October.

GST TRANSITIONAL RELIEF BY EXTENSION OF TIME LIMIT

CBEC PRESS RELEASE dated 22.07.2017

Extension of time limit towards;
a. intimation for composition levy
b. cancellation of registration

To address the concerns of taxpayers arising from Transition to the GST regime, the Government decides to extend the time limit for filing intimation for Composition Levy (filing of intimation FORM GST CMP-01) up to 16th August, 2017; The period of applying for Cancellation of Registration is being extended up to 30th September, 2017.
The Government is mindful of the concerns of tax payers, especially the small taxpayers, arising from transition to the GST regime from 1st of July, 2017.
With a view to ease the compliance burden of provisionally migrated small taxpayers opting to pay tax under the Composition scheme, it has been decided to extend the time limit for filing intimation for Composition levy (filing of intimation FORM GST CMP-01) up to 16th August, 2017.
Similarly, the taxpayers who were provisionally migrated by virtue of being registered under the existing laws, but who are no longer required to be registered under GST, the period of applying for Cancellation of Registration is being extended up to 30th September, 2017. Relevant notifications are being issued.

Update (in sequence of action to be taken):
1st July - GST Regime Starts

15th July onwards - Uploading of Sales / Outward Invoices

20th August - Pay tax and Upload GSTR-3B for July (Self declaration form)

1st – 5th September - File GSTR-1 for the month of July

6th – 10th September - Download and Reconcile GSTR-2 for the month of July (auto populated from GSTR-1)

16th – 20th September - - File GSTR-1 for the month of August

20th September - Pay tax and Upload GSTR-3B for August (Self declaration form)

21st – 25th September - Download and Reconcile GSTR-2 for the month of August (auto populated from GSTR-1)

10th October - File GSTR-1 for the month of September

15th October - File GSTR-2 for the month of September

20th October - File GSTR-3 for the month of September