NEW DELHI: To augment collections amid growing concerns over missing the budgeted estimates, the government has reset the target for goods and service tax (GST) collections for the second time in two months – to Rs 1.15 lakh crore for February and Rs 1.25 lakh crore for March.
The decision to raise the target -- from Rs 1.1 lakh crore in December to at least Rs 1.15 lakh crore for the next two months -- was taken at a high-level meeting of senior officials of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), people aware of the matter said.
“Field formations have been exhorted to put forward special efforts and to initiate actions against wilful tax evaders or those who are using fake invoices or inflated or fake e-way bills…,” a government official said.
“Weekly high-level review of revenue augmentation measures & efforts made or actions taken against these targeted gamers, fraudulent ITC seekers and identified default taxpayers would be done by the revenue secretary,” he added.
Tax authorities will use data analytics to check mismatch of supply and purchase invoices, mismatch in return filings, over invoicing, excess refunds availed, patching the tax leakages, fake or huge ITC claims, and refunds under inverted duty structure.
Text messages and emails will be sent to defaulters after which
GST field formations will visits to ensure timely tax payments.
The GST Network's trial for new returns has witnessed encouraging response.
Over 363,855 new returns by taxpayers under GST have been uploaded as of January 12 using the offline tool in the trial phase that began from January 4, as per data available with ET.
The GSTN is conducting the trial run for new return filing for taxpayers to iron out any problems they face and take stakeholder feedback, before implementing it in April.
Inputs received on the new forms during the trial page will be used to improve the interface.
GSTN received around 750 inputs from industry.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com