Vikas Kumar

Facilitating Ease of Doing Business

➢ Reduction in Transaction processing Time: With the GST regime coming
into force from 1st July, 2017, cycle time for processing of refund claims, taking
registrations, step in to tax offices, filing of (manual) returns, filing of (manual)
appeals have been reduced as all transactions are processed online. No need
to queue. Can be done from the comforts of own office on 24-hour basis.
➢ Transportation turn - over time reduced drastically due to no-barrier system.
➢ Auto Population of Transactions in GST Returns: No Doubt we faced some
technical glitches during the initial period. However, with the passage of time
flow of data from E-Invoicing to GSTR-1, GSTR-1 to GSTR-3B and from GSTR-
2B to GSTR-3B is now seamless and these are auto populated. This has further
resulted in much fewer unintended errors of over / under reporting of tax liability
/ ITC availment committed in GST returns.
➢ Interest Calculator: R3B. Auto populated in table 5.1 for next tax period
➢ Self-Certification of GSTR-9C [Reconciliation statement]: Another good move
implemented by GST Council to do away with GSTR-9C certification by
CA/CMA from FY 2020-21. (CAs/CMAs as a group may not like it!!!)
➢ E-Invoicing has been introduced for Taxpayers from 01.04.2022 whose
aggregate annual turnover is more than Rs. 20 cr. in any of F.Y. starting from
01.07.2017. This will help the genuine trade a lot.
➢ Verification of seller’s profile: From Feb 2022 onwards, several things can
be checked online after logging into the GST portal. 1. State Jurisdiction or
Center Jurisdiction 2. Date of registration 3. Constitution of business 4. Status
of GSTIN (Active/Suspended/Cancelled) 5. Taxpayer Type (Regular?) 6.
Annual Aggregate Turnover 7. % of Tax Payment in cash 8. goods and services
with HSN code 9. Name of the Proprietor/Director(s)/Promoter(s) 10. Nature of
business activities 11. GST return filing table (GSTR-3B, Annual Return &
Audit) 12. E-way bill history 13. Legal and trade name 14. Principal and
additional place of business 15. Contact details 16. R-1 and R-3B matching
month-wise 17. Annual aggregate turnover vis-à-vis Gross Total Income
➢ SOP for Scrutiny of Returns. No unnecessary details/documents.
Challenging Issues in GST
➢ Fake Invoices: Quite often trade has presented “Fake Invoice” as one of the
challenging issues. But Friends, for Government [CGST/SGST] tax
authorities it is also a challenging issue where GST Council / GSTIN / State
and Central tax authorities are consistently reviewing and implementing system
checks at GSTIN portal to overcome the same. Unscrupulous firms not only
resort to tax evasion but also defraud banks, violate other laws, get involved in
money laundering, inflate turnover to defraud shareholders, etc…

➢ Govt is regularly monitoring through various data analytics tools transactions

which are unrecorded, outside the system and/or have broken links. A large
number of “fly by night” entities have been identified from GSTIN data analytics
and action initiated. All transactions are recorded at GST portal hence sooner
or later evil minds defrauding any stakeholders has to pay for crime committed.
 Vikas Kumar

➢ In past one-year various system checks have been placed at GST Portal of
taxpayers i.e. “Matching of GSTR-1 vs GSTR-3B”, GSTR-2B vs GSTR-3B, %
of Tax Liability paid in GSTR-3B against tax liability due as per GSTR-1,
Blocking of GSTR-1/GSTR-3B if returns of previous period has not been filed,
Blocking of E-Way Bills, implementing E-Invoicing… All these measures are
towards overcoming the challenging issues of fake invoices and self-audit by
taxpayers of their due tax liability and tax payments.

➢ My humble request to all taxpayers is to [wherever feasible] ensure physical

existence of business of supplier before undertaking transactions with them [to
eliminate the existence of “Dummy Business entities”]. Please make sure
invoice should accompany with goods from place of dispatch with proper E-way
bill / E-Invoicing wherever applicable. Conduct half yearly / annually audit of
supplier. No doubt there may still be a few culprits engaging in unfair practices.
But I am sure that the best practices [proper check list] adopted by industry for
supplier & supply validation would certainly add to compliance.
Important Check points to review by Taxpayers – To avoid unwanted litigation

➢ Rule 96(10) of CGST Rules 2017 - Refund of IGST: Ensure to make export
clearances on payment of IGST and claim refund only if the benefit of IGST
exemption on Imports against Advance Authorisation has not been availed.
(Refer Notification No. 54/2018-CGST dated 09.10.2018)

➢ Export proceeds realisation: Realise Export proceeds within period

prescribed under FEMA / RBI guidelines or else refund has to be returned back
with interest and re-claim refund when payment is realised. Refer Rule 96B of
CGST Rules 2017.

➢ Concessional GST rate of 0.1%: Ensure compliance of conditions as stated

in Notification No. 40/2017 and 41/2017 of CGST and IGST respectively to avail
benefit of concessional rate of GST. Buyer to be registered with export
promotion council or commodity board. Goods to be sent directly to port
or registered warehouse.

➢ Avail ITC as per GSTR-2B – These small compliances by taxpayers will

ensure that they do not invite any audit objections.

➢ Please verify your suppliers carefully. 1. GSTIN Status 2. GST return filing
table (GSTR-3B, Annual Return & Audit) 3. E-way bill history 4. R-1 and R-3B
matching month-wise 5. Annual aggregate turnover vis-à-vis Gross Total
Income 5. Taxpayer type (Regular) 6. % of tax paid in cash

➢ Rule 48(5) – Non-e-Invoice. Not a valid document for availing ITC. Please
insist and ensure that the supplier (turnover>= Rs 10 Crore from 1st Oct 2022)
is issuing e-Invoice. Rule 48(4) -> GST-INV-01