GST Officials discuss ways to streamline system, curb evasion

Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey held a day-long brainstorming session on Tuesday with Commissioners of State and central taxes to discuss how the Goods and Service Tax (GST) system can be streamlined for faster refunds, enhanced compliance and discourage tax evaders.

Officials debated on ways to curb fraud and evasion, check fake or huge input tax credit claims and seek bank account details of businesses to tally their filings. They discussed methods to curb misuse of refunds and share the best practices in revenue augmentation.

The discussions focussed on a road ahead for e-invoicing, new return system and feedback, e-way bill linking with Fastag, pendency of refunds, linkage of Aadhaar to GST registration, enforcement module use without overreach and QR codes.

This was the second all-India conference where both tax administrations came together formally to build synergy and to share their knowledge with the intent to bring about uniformity in tax administrations.

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The meet deliberated on a mechanism and machinery for disseminating inter-departmental data among various agencies. It was attended by senior officers of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM), GSTN officials and field officers from enforcement wings.

An official statement said all major cases of a fake input tax credit, export or import fraud and fraudulent refunds will now be investigated by the Income Tax Department.

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GST collection crosses Rs 1.03 lakh crore in December 2019

For a second time in a row, the GST revenue collection remained above the Rs 1 lakh crore mark with December mop-up at Rs 1.03 lakh crore indicating a pick-up in consumption. GST collection in November stood at Rs 1,03,492 crore. Before that, it was in July when the mop-up crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark at Rs 1.02 lakh crore.

The GST collection stood at Rs 94,726 crore in December 2018, as per an official statement. According to official sources, the GST revenue last month reflects a pick-up in consumption and improvement in compliances.

"The GST revenue during the month of December 2019 from domestic transactions has shown an impressive growth of 16 per cent over the revenue during the month of December 2018," the statement said.

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READ | GST Collection At Rs 1.03 Lakh Cr In Dec