GST Law

The GST Council in its next meeting is likely to discuss decriminalisation of offences under GST law, along with raising the threshold of launching prosecution to Rs 20 crore, from Rs 5 crore at present, officials said on Monday. The council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising her state counterparts, is scheduled to meet virtually on December 17. The government had in September said that GST officers can launch prosecution against GST offenders in cases where the amount of evasion or misuse of input tax credit is more than Rs 5 crore. Launching of prosecution by taxmen means commencement of legal proceedings against the offender. One of the proposal before the Council is to raise the threshold limit for launching criminal proceedings under GST for offences over Rs 20 crore. Also, the property of offenders below the set threshold will not be attached, officials said. The council is also likely to consider removing those penal offences which are alre

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The government is considering to remove the penal offences which are already covered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) from the GST Act to make it more taxpayer-friendly, an official said. The proposal, part of the exercise to decriminalise GST law, is likely to be taken up in the next meeting of the GST Council. Once approved by the GST Council, the Finance Ministry will propose amendments to the GST law, which could be taken up in the upcoming winter session of Parliament next month. "Law committee has finalised the changes in Section 132 of the GST Act as part of the exercise to decriminalise the law," the official told PTI. The offences that are similar to those covered under the Indian Penal Code would be removed from GST law, the official added. The amendments would be placed before the GST Council for approval. Thereafter, it would go to Parliament for effecting changes in the GST Act. Once approved by Parliament, states would be required to amend their state GST laws. Tax

Some experts see significant positives, other believe problems associated with older policy will persist

The party also termed the government's decision to ban wheat exports as anti farmer.

The government is working on classification of cryptocurrency as goods or services under the GST law, so that tax can be levied on the entire value of transactions

The government on Sunday extended the deadline for various compliances under the income tax law and availing relief under the GST law to help taxpayers tide over difficulties in filing such forms

Counsel for companies raises concerns about whether or not well accepted, judicially tested, fair and proper procedures are being followed during such arrests

The government has allowed further flexibility to tax filers operating under the Quarterly Return Filing and Monthly Payment of Taxes scheme

A national-level organisation of small businessmen on Friday said it is opposed to the move

This takes the total amount released so far to Rs 95,000 crore

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday released the 14th installment of Rs 6,000 crore to states to meet the GST compensation shortfall, taking the total amount of fund released so far to Rs 84,000 crore. Till now, 76 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to states and 3 UTs. Out of this, an amount of Rs 76,616.16 crore has been released to 23 states and Rs 7,383.84 crore to the 3 UTs with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, J&K, Puducherry). The remaining 5 states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation, it added. The Centre had set up a special borrowing window in October 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. The Finance Ministry in a statement said it has released the 14th weekly installment of Rs 6,000 crore to states to meet the GST compensation shortfall. The amount has been borrowed this week

This takes the total amount of fund released to Rs 78,000 crore

As many as 60.3 million GST e-invoices were generated in December 2020, higher than 58.9 million in November

While the government claims that companies are booked under GST laws for fraudulently claiming the input tax credit, experts find loopholes in the provisions, particularly those related to arrests

The amendment relates to limiting the transitional input tax credit to 90 days form the roll out of the goods and services tax (GST) from July one, 2017

The GST regime was ushered in without adequate preparation of the information technology platform for filing returns

According to GST laws, IGST would be levied and collected in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Tariff Act

The commerce ministry should now wake up and suitably amend the SEZ laws

Sources said investigation was underway and the fraud amount was expected to go up to Rs 2 billion