Way too long to do better and easier Economy

Posted on 29th Jun 2020 by rohit kumar

When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in 2017, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had hoped that the introduction of historic indirect tax reforms would serve five major purposes - curbing inflation, reducing compliance burden, tax evasion It will get tougher, GDP will get stronger and the government's revenue sources will be stronger. GST implemented completes 3 years. The three objectives of the implementation of GST are hiccups, GST is not going to increase inflation and the GST Council is still constantly in the process of curbing tax evasion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi named it Good and Simple Tax, about which experts think that it has not become so.

 

In short, the system of filing GST returns is still being finalized, the growth rate of India's economy is at the lowest level of the last 11 years in FY 2020 and it is heading towards the worst recession ever. However, GST alone cannot be blamed for this. The condition of tax collection is that the government had promised to give compensation in the event of a decrease in the revenue of the states, to meet this, the GST Council is now considering borrowing from the market, to compensate for the decrease in revenue. It can be done. Apart from this, the tax has been changed on more than 500 goods.

 

The global epidemic of coronaviruses hit businesses struggling with structural complexities associated with multiple rates of technology and tax, and these challenges pushed Karabori activities to historic lows. Experts say that upon entering the fourth year of GST, there is a need to strengthen IT infrastructure, rationalize many GST structures and rates, simplify compliance burden, and re-work on compensation systems for states.

 

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal told Business Standard that a complete change is needed. He said, 'Before GST was introduced, I said that it is better to have GST than not GST. I sincerely believed in it. But the way our GST system is operating, my perception changed. There is not a single problem that is not there in this GST.

 

MS Mani, partner, Deloitte India, said that during the three years of GST, there is a need to work on some of the complexities of various taxes where tax reduction, tax evasion in the business, easing of tax, reducing compliance burden, etc. He said, "In the current situation, when business is on the mend, it is necessary to make minimum changes in GST and give businesses maximum flexibility in input tax credit, refund, compliance process".

 

GST compliance has become the main problem for taxpayers, due to which the government is also losing revenue. In November 2017, the government canceled GSTR-2 (Purchase) and GSTR-3 (Sales Purchase Return) due to technical constraints on the GSTN portal. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is aware of the technical bottlenecks in the GST network. He had said, 'We are aware that when more than one lakh people access the system simultaneously, there are problems like not being able to bear the burden. Either the system stops, or it takes time or there is no response. ' In fact, Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani was called to the Council's meeting in March with technical flaws. The IT company provides technical support for GSTN.

 

The proposed simple GST form was to be introduced in July 2019, but has been postponed several times due to flaws in technical preparations.

 

Rajat Mohan, partner, AMRG Associates, said that taxpayers find GST compliance burdensome and tedious. He said, "Some notifications, circulars, and explanations do not make life easier for taxpayers." Independent tax advisor Dinesh Wadera said that the government has received around Rs 6,070 crore as a late tax collection penalty between July 2017 to December 2019, an amount that should be returned to the taxpayers. He said, "Those filing GST returns should not be punished because of technical flaws in GSTN."

 

Harpreet Singh, Partner at KPMG, said, 'E-invoicing, new return regime, centralized advance ruling apply authority, etc. have been introduced in GST-4.0, which shows the way forward. The industry should trust that the government's strategy to implement it has been thoughtfully designed to avoid the initial challenges.

 

There is pressure on the compensation system of the states, as there is not enough collection due to weak consumer demand, and such a situation precedes Coronavirus. Compensation collection of Rs 95,000 crore took place in 2019-20 and the government has given a compensation of Rs 1.15 lakh crore till November, for which the remaining compensation of the earlier fiscal year was used 3. Apart from this, the funds of the unified GST collection which were not allocated from 2017-18, till February, for 3 months, Rs 36,400 crore have been given to the states.