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All units are requested to forward their comments on AGT Guidelines by 17.01.2020 in Word format

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Technical Issues


GS/ADMN/2019                                                               Dated 08.03.2019

To
          The Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Central Excise & Customs
          Thiruvanathapuram Zone
Sir,
          Sub: Undue pressure on GST field formations and deficiencies in GST
backend  

          The Association is constrained to highlight the unbearable pressure thrust upon our members working in GST formations by overwhelming them with culling and analysis of data on various mismatches and calling for immediate report and realizations. The recent addition of DGARM data has further compounded the situation. The Superintendents working in field formations are further burdened by the lack of adequate staff. The compulsions for immediate verification reports puts the officer at a high risk of disciplinary action at a later date when it comes to notice that some mistakes have crept in due to the haste in implementing the directions issued. It is apposite to mention here that the C&AG Audit Parties have now started scrutinizing the TRAN 1 verification done by our officers and there is every chance for the same being replicated on other verifications. Hence, it is requested that sufficient time and manpower must be given for completing these verifications.

2.       We would like to bring to your notice some of the practical difficulties in conducting these verifications. The email id given in the application for registration is often created merely for registration purposes and most often mails are not read by the registrants. When the numbers of registrants to be verified are high, the Range Officers are not in a position to place individual call to the registrants, which are at times viewed as harassment also. You may recollect that a question was raised in the Parliament regarding the phone calls to registrants. It is hence suggested that the possibility of sending automated messages and calls to the registered mobile number should be explored in order to overcome this difficulty.

3.    Another major area of work is action against non-filers. Repeated emails are not giving any result in many cases and non initiation of further action has grossly discounted the worth of such emails. Automated GSTR 3A should be issued to the Registrants.  Suo-moto Cancellation of Registration Option may be incorporated in GST Backend Software in respect of registrants who have not filed Return >= 6 Months, after intimating the Tax Payer with a pre-defined  “As per Section 29(2) of CGST Act, 2017, Your Registration is liable for Cancellation since you have not filed GSTR-3B Return for a continuous period of 6 Months” through e-mail and mobile no. with a due date (as a final chance) to file the Returns and send a compliance report through online. The system may cancel their registration after the due date, if no reply is received from the tax payer and they still have not filed the returns even after the intimation. Amendment may be required to change the word “proper officer” as “GSTN System/proper officer” in Section 29(2) of CGST Act, 2017.

4.       A good number of verifications required to be conducted pertains to ITC and one of the crucial documents in this regard is the GSTR2A. Though the functionality to view GSTR2A has been introduced recently, it is practically difficult to use. The GSTR2A cannot be downloaded immediately and a request is to be placed. In a good number cases the GSTR2A would not be made available. These requests are to be made separately for each month and for each data field (B2B, B2BA, CDN, CDNA, ISD, ISDA) and this becomes a time consuming exercise. The GSTR2A should be made available on real time basis for a given range of months. It would be ideal if the suppliers GSTR 3B status is also provided in the GSTR2A.

5.       We would also like to bring to your kind notice, some of the inadequacies of the report functionalities available in GST back end. Some of the reports in Reports Module can be generated only for a single month. But most of the time, reports are being required for a particular period i.e, in between periods (<= 12 Months). Hence it is very difficult for the Range Formations to generate all reports for every month and subsequently work out the same in MS Excel manually to compile a report for a particular period, which is tedious and time consuming leading to wastage of time and man power, although all data is available in the system itself. It is compulsorily required to generate all reports for the period (From Month, To Month Options and maximum for a period of 12 Months) at least for the Range Formations. If possible “Values: Rs. in Crores/Rs. in Lakhs/Rs. in Actual” may also be included. Also, the download option for the summary may be enabled so that all data can be got in a tabulated form.

6.       In the HSN Report and Tax Offset reports, the summary of various Taxes paid in cash and credit and the cash to credit ratio is to be added. At present, these are to be calculated.

7.       Some of the reports when downloaded do not contain the name of the formation or the period. The Non Filers of GST Returns Report listing the Composition Levy Tax Payers also, who have already filed GSTR-4 Returns which is required to be filed by them. Hence It is better to have an Input Parameter during the report generation i.e., Type of GST Return: GSTR-3B/GSTR-1/GSTR-4/GSTR-9/GSTR-10” to avoid this type of issues. It is an urgent requirement since Suo-moto cancellation of Registration by the Tax Officer is in the process based on the Non filers of GST Returns for a continuous period of 6 months. It would be ideal if the Non filers report also provides the email id and phone no of the registrant as it would avoid the burden of identifying the data from the registration master.

8.  It is also submitted that the Non filers data are sometimes inaccurate causing embarrassment to field officers. Although the GST Returns for the months filed by the Tax Payers are displayed with “Filed” status, while verifying through “Search Tax Payer” Option in www.gst.gov.in, the Range Officer is unable to retrieve the recently filed returns in the AIO. It takes 1 or 2 Days/1 Week time to view the recently filed returns through the AIO. The Range Officer should be able to view the GST Returns in the AIO immediately whenever the returns are filed. Only then the Report on Non Filers of Returns will be correct while being generated from AIO.

9.  An additional report comparing the revenue trends of Top 100 taxpayers should be introduced. This should have data for current month, upto month along with comparative figures of the previous year.

10.     As per the extant instructions, application for cancellation of registration is allowed without looking into the liability part. A report of cancelled registration should be made available containing details of Registration Required Date, Registration Approved Date, Cancellation Application Filed Date, Effective Date on which Cancellation is required, Last Month for Which Return is Filed and Registration Cancelled Date.

11.  In the downloadable tax payer details from the registration menu, the details of the goods/ services supplied and the name of the signatories may be added.

12. The refund processing is soon expected to be completely online. In the case of refund of ITC on zero rated supply, the prime concern is the correctness of NET ITC declared. In the case of refund of ITC accumulated on account  of inverted tax structure, the Statement 1A required to be filed online contains the details of inward supplied which get validated with GSTR2A  before uploading. Similar details are presently not required in Statement 3 pertaining to ITC on zero rated supply. This detail is required to be filed online for smooth online processing.

13.     The online learning management system should be regularly updated to keep the trainers up-to-date.


                                                                             Yours faithfully

                                                                             ARUN ZACHARIAH.P
                                                                             GENERAL SECRETARY

Copy to
                   The Commissioner of Central Tax & Central Excise,
                   Cochin/Thiruvanathapuram/ Calicut,
                  

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