I
remember when my mother used to cook, I used to eat half cooked boiled potatoes
and my mom used to say “Namak Haldi to dalne do”. Crux was not she wanted me to
eat spices but they certainly added taste to the dish. At times I feel that journey
of GST had been some what same, the spices of investigations, search,
assessments, audits are yet to be added in GST Version 2.0. But we feel that
there are few things which needs to be changed before GST departments starts
spreading colours on this new and vibrant tax law.
At
the very outset there is a need that the
field formations and the people at the helm of the affairs should be on same
page. Whatever circulars/notifications/instructions are issued they must be
properly communicated and practically implemented at the ground level. One such
example is reconciliation between GSTR 2A and GSTR 3B which top bureaucracy feels
is not required, where as the field formations hold a different view. Also the
pro-active approach of DGCI needs to be made more meaningful by searching only
those taxpayers who are informed to have huge tax evasion. In one of the case
(without naming) a team of around 13 personnel searched a premises where an amount
of around Rs. 3 lakhs was found to be unaccounted. There is need that effective
cost benefit analysis must be made to avoid wastage of funds. Apart from these
issues, there is dire need to handle the ego-issues between the officers
community. The officers at centre and state level must understand that it is
their synergies together that can lead towards better administration of new tax
regime. We need to bridge the gap between the mindset a central officer and a
state level officer carries.
If
you are a taxpayer, trust me, going forward things are not going to very easy.
The spices may actually make GST savoury for you. Although the annual returns have
been deferred for another 3 months, it must be understood that once these are
filed the activism of the department would start. As earlier said that only 5% of
the taxpayers would be selected for audits, but as I perceive from department’s
mind set is that every case where they have a minutest suspicion would be
selected for audit. So get ready to welcome the team to scrutinize your GST
records. Also a pro-active approach shall be adopted to effectively enforce the
provisions of section 73 and Section 74 of the act. And if these are enforced,
I believe that most of the taxpayers would be in trouble. Apart from this
Department also tend to activate Sections 67 (Inspection), Section 69 (arrest),
Section 71 (Access to business premises), Section 79 (Recovery of Tax) and
Chapter 19 (Penalties) of the Act which were in hibernation mode since long.
Remind you that a GST officer has got all the relevant powers which he requires
to suppress the wrongdoer and penalize him heavily. Not only he can charge
penalty in cash but has to power to arrest/detain/seizure in extreme cases
where he feels that volume of tax evasion is huge. So taxpayers, the cake walk
is about to finish and get ready for fire walk. Till now Department has accepted
what ever you have filed in form of GSTR 3B or GSTR 1 but now is the turn of
the department to analyse/scrutinize/inspect those data in the interest of the
revenue. I won’t be surprised if there is sudden upsurge in searches, notices,
inspection and scrutiny activities of GST Department. That is their right and
every taxpayer must strictly adhere to the laws or face the music.
With
this I feel that now time has come that taxpayers must realize that importance
of tax compliant not as per their own satisfaction but as per the spirit and
intent of the law.
Regards
Keshav R Garg
+91-98880-90008
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