Recent Updates In GST till 02nd October 2019

Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal, FCA, FCS

Indian economy is still in ‘struggle’ phase. According to latest reports, industrial growth in five core sectors (coal, crude, natural gas, cement and electricity) have fallen to 4.7% which is the lowest in last over 4 years. The core sector growth in current year @ 2.4% is lower than 5.7% in previous year. Fiscal deficit has hit 78.7% of financial year 2019-20 target.

On refunds, Government is committed to make refunds within prescribed time lines. In case of MSMEs, pending refunds shall be paid within 30 days. In future, GST refunds shall be paid within 60 days of application which is aimed at resolving liquidity crises faced by MSME sector and also release working capital pressure. This seamless and speedy refund has become possible with, ‘Online Refund Processing and Single Disbursement’ system.

♦ Constitution of State/Area benches of GSTAT

In terms of provisions of Section 109 of the CGST Act, GST Council recommended constitution of GST Appellate Tribunal and its benches in following states:

♦ Extension of last date for filing appeal before GSTAT

In the wake of non-functionality of GST Appellate Tribunal in the States/UTs, the Council has also decided to extend the last date for filing of appeal before the GSTAT by three months from the date of order or three months from the date on which the President or the State President of the Tribunal enter office, whichever is later.

♦ GST Refunds

Online refund processing functionality shall be implemented from 24th September, 2019 enabling disbursement of refund through a Single Refund Sanctioning Authority under an Integrated Refund System. Earlier, the refund processing was done for both Centre and State GST by one authority to whom the taxpayer was assigned administratively but disbursement was done by accounting authority of Centre and State tax department separately. The new system has done away with this and after processing is completed by the tax officer, the sanctioned amount will get credited to the bank account of the taxpayers through PFMS System.

The Council also approved that the procedure to be followed and other issues be clarified in relation to refund in following situations:

(a) procedure to claim refund in FORM GST RFD-01A subsequent to favourable order in appeal or any other forum;

(b) eligibility to file a refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A for a period and category under which a NIL refund application has already been filed.

♦ Issue of new Notifications

CBIC has issued 14 notifications yesterday on 30.09.2019 the decisions taken in 37^th GST Council meeting which was held on 22.09.2019 in Goa. The gist of new notifications is given below in this article

♦ Recession of Circular

CBIC has rescinded Circular No.105/24/2019-GST dated 28.06.2019, ab-initio, which was issued in respect of post-sales discount.

♦ GST Collections

GST collection has dropped below Rs 1 lakh crore mark to Rs 91,916 crore for September, 2019. The September collection is believed to be the lowest in nineteen months.

The revenue during September, 2019 has declined by 2.67% in comparison to the revenue during September, 2018. During April-September, 2019 vis-à-vis 2018, the domestic component has grown by 7.82% while the GST on imports has shown negative growth and the total collection has grown by 4.90%.

The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of September, 2019 was Rs 91,916 crore of which Central GST (CGST) was Rs 16,630 crore, State GST (SGST) was Rs 22,598 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) was Rs 45,069 crore (including Rs 22,097 crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs 7,620 crore (including Rs 728 crore collected on imports).

♦ GST collection at a glance in 2019-20

Gist of Recent GST Notifications issued

The decisions of GST Council meeting held on 20^th September, 2019 were supposed to be implemented w.e.f. 1^st October, 2019. However, the relevant notifications to give effect to the same have been issued only in the evening of 30^th September, 2019 after offices had closed. This could have been avoided and such notifications issued last week itself. The Government also expects taxpayers to be compliant.

It is high time that Government decides to amend GST rules only at fixed intervals, if required, say every quarter end. The changes also necessitate amendments in rules and rates which make it difficult for taxpayers, professionals and even officers to track the changes, leading to possible non-compliances. The Government claims that it is ‘listening and acting; so far, so good. But is this the way, any tax Collector is expected to act ?

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