GST Council to meet today; E-way bill, return filing process on agenda

The GST Council will hold its 26th meeting to discuss a range of issues on Saturday. Major agendas for the meeting include difficulties being faced by traders in filing the returns, E-way Bill, and the deadline for the filing of simplified sales return GSTR-3B. The delay in exporters' refund under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is also causing problems for traders, with around Rs 10,000 crore stuck with the government. The members may also discuss ways to stabilise the new tax system to streamline its GST revenue process.  In the meeting, the Council will take the final decision on the implementation of the E-way bill for inter-state movement of goods from April 1.

Meanwhile, a Parliamentary panel has observed that with no targets fixed, the monthly revenue collections from GST are not encouraging. "The Committee is constrained to observe the not-so-encouraging monthly revenue collections from the GST, which still have not stabilised with frequent changes in rates and issue of notifications every now and then. Further, the committee is surprised to learn that no GST revenue targets have been fixed by the government," the Standing Committee on Finance headed by Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily said in its report tabled in Parliament on Saturday.

The Committee also observed that the frequent revisions in rates have "no doubt affected the regime stability, with adverse impact on trade and business." States have also reported losses in revenue collection, said the Parliamentary panel, adding it will only increase the compensation budget of the central government. The GST Council should duly address the grievances of states, if any, so that their financial health do not suffer and the lingering issues relating to the GST should be sorted out, including the operational problems, hassles faced by businesses, particularly the smaller ones, it said.

"Representations received in this regard should be disposed in a structured manner within a given time-frame. The Committee would also like to caution that the Department of Revenue should ever remain alert and vigilant on the possibility of revenue leakages, evasion and collusion in the course of GST implementation," it said in its report. Further, greater awareness needs to be created among the traders about the Goods and Services (GST) structure, need for its implementation and punitive action in case of non-compliance, it said.

In December, the GST collections stood at Rs 86,703 crore, higher than November figure of Rs 80,808 crore and Rs 83,000 crore in October. In September, it was over Rs 92,150 crore. The tax collection under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) fell marginally to Rs 86,318 crore in January than December. The new indirect tax system GST was rolled out in July 2017 all across the country.  

The government on Thursday sought Parliament's approval to spend an additional Rs 85,300 crore in the next two months of the current financial year, which ends on March 31, a finance ministry statement said. The extra expenditure includes as much as Rs 62,700 crore for compensation to the state governments and union territories as collections from the Goods and Services Tax, introduced in July last year, have fallen short of expectations due to the chaotic launch.

The GST Council, the body that takes all the GST related decisions, has decided to dump the earlier system of three monthly GST returns and instead decided to overhaul the whole system. The council is working on three different models, two being proposed by GST Network, the IT backbone of the GST, and another one by Nandan Nilkeni, chairman, Infosys.