Introduction
India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission is not just a leap for space exploration, but also offers pragmatic lessons for various fields, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) domain. While space missions and taxation might appear to be poles apart, the underlying principles of planning, overcoming obstacles, and embracing innovation unify them.
1 – Learning from obstacles/Mistakes:
ISRO’s meticulous approach to the Chandrayaan-3 mission following the challenges faced in its predecessor, Chandrayaan-2, offers a profound lesson. Similarly, errors made while filing GST returns (GSTR1, GSTR3B) or annual returns (GSTR9 & GSTR9C) should be meticulously noted. The goal? Ensuring preparedness for potential ASMT-10 or departmental audit notices.
2 – The Essence of Staying Updated
For ISRO scientists, being updated was key to Chandrayaan-3’s success. Drawing parallels, it’s imperative for GST practitioners to be aware of new circulars, notifications, advance rulings, and court decisions. This helps in ensuring compliance and making informed decisions.
3 – Planning\Timing : Chandrayaan-3 is executed with correct timing and planning hence successfully perform a soft landing on the south pole of the moon through its lunar exploration mission,
Likewise, in GST, there are due dates of return filing, we cannot miss them, and if we miss them then interest and penalty are applicable, so we should check the due dates and plan so that we can file the correct return before the due dates.
4 – Financial Audit\Investigate and collect data : Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2 that will attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and deploy a rover to explore the lunar surface. The rover will collect data on the composition and geology of the moon,
Likewise, we should analyse the financial and notes, we should find out in it that there are any points or notes in which the GST officer can further ask us questions, collect data from the respective department or stakeholder and investigate the same, if the liability does not come above that point, then keep supporting working ready.
5 – Think about future: This was India’s third Chandrayaan mission, The first and second was a failure but still ISRO never give-up and they had launched every Chandrayaan mission thinking about the future,
Likewise, while we are doing any calculation for GST, we should remember that we should make such calculation that we can refer this calculation for all GST paras, so that if there are other type of notices received in future, so we don’t have to work again.
6 – Automations: The Vikram lander module is equipped with various sensors and instrument packages to help it land and perform scientific experiments on the lunar surface, the rover has software installed so it can collect information on the moon.
Likewise, we should automate our GST reports so that we can get more correct reports in less time and also there are some reconciliations in GST (GSTR2B, Eway bill, IRN), if we automate them, we can save a lot of time and use that time for quality work.
Conclusion
Chandrayaan-3, with its stellar achievements, serves as an inspiration in more ways than one. Its journey offers GST professionals valuable insights, from embracing challenges to adopting innovations, ensuring a smoother voyage in the vast sea of taxation.
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