Ease of doing business for MSMEs: Traders and retailers have welcomed the move by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to identify fake GST registrations and take appropriate action against offenders. Fake registrations are used to claim the input tax credit (ITC) through invoices without any underlying supply of goods or services.

The ‘Special All-India Drive’ to detect fake GST identification numbers (GSTINs) is underway since May 15 and will continue till July 15. “This menace of fake registrations and issuance of bogus invoices for passing fake ITC has become a serious problem, wherein fraudulent people engage in dubious and complex transactions, causing revenue loss to the government,” the CBIC had said earlier this month.

The GTAs, who commence business or cross registration threshold on or after 1st April, 2023, and wish to opt for payment of tax under forward charge mechanism are required to file their declaration in Annexure V for the FY 2023-24 physically before the concerned jurisdictional authority.
The declaration may be filed within the specified time limits, as prescribed in the Notification. No. 05/2023-Central Tax (Rate), dated. 09.05.2023.

The CBIC has come out with a standard operating procedure (SoP) for scrutiny of GST returns for fiscal 2019-20 onwards under which the analytics unit will identify returns for scrutiny depending on various risk parameters.As per the SoP, selection of returns for scrutiny will be done by the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) based on various risk parameters identified by them. DGARM will select the GSTINs registered with the Central Tax authorities, and the details of GSTINs selected will be made available on the scrutiny dashboard of the concerned Central Tax officer on ACES-GST application.

“The details of the risk parameters, in respect of which risk has been identified for a particular GSTIN, and the amount of tax/ discrepancy involved in respect of the concerned risk parameters (i.e. likely revenue implication), will also be shown on the scrutiny dashboard of the proper officer for their convenience,” the SoP said. Earlier this month, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had rolled out a module for automated scrutiny of GST returns. The module enables tax officers to carry out scrutiny of GST returns of Centre administered taxpayers selected on the basis of data analytics and risks identified by the System.

Vide Notifications No. 11/2023 – Central Tax, 12/2023 – Central Tax and 13/2023 – Central Tax, all dated 24th May 2023, the Government has extended the due date of filing GSTR-1, GSTR-3B & GSTR-7 of April-2023 tax period till 31st May 2023 for all the taxpayers having principal place of business in the state of Manipur.
2. The said changes have been implemented on the GST Portal from 27th May 2023 onwards.

Courts are increasingly giving relief to taxpayers by staying GST demands, pending formation of the GST Tribunal that would provide a forum to file appeals.
The Calcutta high court’s divisional bench recently stayed recovery proceedings and modified the order of a single judge bench which had a condition to grant a stay on the demand: payment of 20% of the disputed tax.
Under GST provisions, a taxpayer aggrieved by the order passed by the first appellate authority, is entitled to file an appeal with the GST Tribunal. However, this tribunal is yet to be set up. This results in taxpayers having to file writ appeals with the high courts to seek relief.
Ankit Kanodia, advocate who represented the taxpayer — Jai Venktesh Concast — before the Calcutta HC told TOI, “This judgment will help all taxpayers who are facing notices from tax authorities for recovery of the confirmed demand, after the order of the first appellate authority. We have seen recovery notices being sent after expiry of three months of the appellate order and the payment is also being debited from the electronic credit ledger, subject to availability of balance. This is done on the ground that there is no stay of demand from any higher forum. This harsh action of the department will be stayed by the present judgment, giving relief till the formation of the GST Tribunal.”

The CBIC has extended the deadline till May 31 for Manipur-based businesses to file monthly GST returns, as the north eastern state continues to witness violence due to ethnic clashes. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued three Central Tax notifications which said that the due date for filing returns GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and GSTR-7 for the month of April by registered persons whose principal place of business is in Manipur has been extended till May 31.

Manipur-registered businesses were to file GSTR-1, which is the statement of outward supplies, for April by May 11.

April GSTR-3B, which is the monthly tax payment form, was to be filed by May 20. GSTR-7, which was to be filed by businesses who deduct tax at source, for April was filed by May 10.

More measures are needed to weed out fake input tax credit (ITC) generators from the system for checking tax evasion and increasing GST revenues, CBIC member Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said on Wednesday. He said the government has taken various steps to tackle the menace of fake ITC claims and has already launched a special 2-month-long drive to identify fake registrations under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and nab offenders.

“If we make seeding of fake ITC impossible or very very difficult, then the problem will get nipped in the bud. Towards this end, the recent validations have been introduced… There is still something more…to be done to weed out fake ITC generators from the system,” Agarwal said at a PHDCCI event here. He said that the registration under GST has soared to 1.39 crore taxpayers, from 64 lakh in the erstwhile excise and service tax regime. Many unscrupulous elements have entered the GST system to claim ITC on the basis of fake invoices, he said, adding that “the struggle of tax administration is how to eliminate them, and make the system pure again”.

Update GST Registration Details: GST or Goods and Services Tax was introduced back in 2017 to replace multiple indirect taxes viz., excise duty, value added tax, purchase tax, service tax, etc. Businesses supplying goods with a turnover of more than Rs 40 lakh and services with a turnover of more than Rs 20 lakh are required to register for GST registration. After registration with the 15-digit Goods and Services Taxpayer Identification Number (GSTIN) and registration certificate, the need to change details may arise due to multiple factors such as a change in address or contact number or business details, etc. Here are some key FAQs on the amendments to the GST registration:

A recent judgement by the Supreme Court (SC) on the user development fee (UDF) collected by the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) may have ramifications on the goods and services tax (GST) as well as the income tax on royalty etc.
Last week, the apex court had held that UDF collected by the DIAL is in the nature of statutory levy and the same would not be taken as consideration against any services.


As such, no service tax is payable on UDF, the court ruled.
In determining that the fee collected by the DIAL is in the nature of statutory levy, the court had laid down some principles.

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), which is the technology interface between government and taxpayers, is due to be integrated with the country’s ambitious financial data sharing network -- Account Aggregator—before July 1, according to top officials overseeing the process.

This can significantly reduce friction in credit disbursement as it will enable small businesses to authorise lenders to access their tax records along with other financial information on a single platform.

The AA system is part of the array of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that India has launched in recent years including others such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). It has been linked to more than 75 lakh bank accounts since its launch in September 2021, according to BG Mahesh, co-founder, and CEO of Sahamati, the non-profit that is promoting AA.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) e-invoicing is a system implemented in India for generating and reporting invoices in a standardized electronic format. It was introduced to simplify the invoicing process and reduce errors while facilitating seamless data exchange between businesses and the Government. Under this system, businesses must generate invoices on their accounting or billing software and upload them to the GSTN portal, validating the information and issuing an Invoice Reference Number (IRN) and a digitally signed QR code.

The goods and services tax department has widened the probe against insurance companies for alleged wrongful availment of input tax credit. The Director General of GST Intelligence is likely to serve show cause notices to 10 more insures soon, taking the number of firms under the drive to 30.

“Investigations into 20 insurers are complete and another 10 cases are under probe as of now. Depending on the findings, show cause notices will be sent to the latter too,” said a person familiar with the development. The latest set of notices will be slapped on some of the prominent general insurance companies, the source added.

Goods and Services Tax authorities are seeking near real-time access to banking transactions of the taxpayers, as a means to detect fake invoices and excess use of input tax credit (ITC) by sections of businesses.

The move follows recent investigations that revealed that undue tax credits accumulated through fake invoices are being used for hawala transactions. In several cases, it was also found that through circuitous routes, the funds finally returned to the persons generating the fake invoices. Shell companies too have been found routing money through fake invoices.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has launched the automated return scrutiny model for goods and services tax returns this week.

The non-intrusive means of compliance verification has been rolled out in the ACES-GST back-end application for central tax officers. “This module will enable the officers to carry out scrutiny of GST returns of Centre administered taxpayers selected on the basis of data analytics and risks identified by the system,” said a finance ministry statement on Thursday.

The finance ministry has decided to lower the threshold for mandatory e-invoicing under the goods and services tax (GST) to Rs 5 crore from the Rs 10 crore at present, effective August 1, a move that will help improve the tax collections further.

According to a notification by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, firms with an annual turnover of Rs 5 crore will have to generate e-invoices for business transactions. Under the e-invoice system, GST registered persons have to upload all B2B and export invoices to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). The IRP generates and returns a unique Invoice Reference Number, digitally signed e-invoice and QR code to the user. This is then transferred to the GST portal.

In a big relief to Gameskraft Technologies (GTPL) and the online gaming industry, the Karnataka high court on Thursday quashed a government notice issued to the Bengaluru based company raising a demand for Rs 21,000 crore towards goods & services tax (GST). The notice had been issued in September last year. Justice S R Krishna Kumar’s judgment copy is yet to be made available.
Gameskraft, founded by former Grofers engineer Prithvi Singh in 2017, operates platforms RummyCulture and Gamezy. It has over 700 employees. It had revenue of Rs 2,112 crore and profit of Rs 937 crore in the financial year 2021­22.

The government has extended the deadline to May 31 for Goods Transport Agencies to exercise the option of paying GST on forward charge basis for current fiscal. Under GST, Goods Transport Agencies have the option to collect and pay GST on forward charge basis. If they do not opt to do so, the liability to pay the tax gets transferred to the recipient of the service, under reverse charge mechanism.

To opt for paying Goods and Services Tax (GST) under forward charge basis at the rate of 12 per cent (with input tax credit) and 5 per cent (without ITC benefits) in a fiscal, a Goods Transport Agency (GTA) has to fill a form (Annexure V) by March 15 of the preceding financial year.

The department of state tax is working to increase the tax base in Goa to boost tax collections and plug leakages, reports Newton Sequeira.
The department is focused on data gathering, enforcement, and surprise inspections to achieve the goals. Goa's monthly tax mop-up has increased by 20% over the past few months due to higher economic output and better tax compliance.
"The department has done a lot of data collection from other departments. We have increased enforcement and our officers are conducting surprise inspections," said GST commissioner Sarpreet Singh Gill.

Businesses will have to more careful while filing returns as the automated scrutiny system for the goods and services tax (GST) is about to use advanced artificial intelligence and data analytics to monitor mismatches.

Expected to be rolled out over the next few days, the new system is expected to correlate data in the various GST returns filed by a taxpayer to ensure there are no discrepancies.


Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in a review meeting on April 29 directed the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to introduce the automated GST return scrutiny by next week.

Dear Taxpayers,

1. It is to inform you that it has been decided by the competent authority to defer the imposition of time limit of 7 days on reporting old e-invoices on the e-invoice IRP portals for taxpayers with aggregate turnover greater than or equal to 100 crores by three months. In this regard, the link to the previously issued advisory dated 13th April 2023 may be referred at:

https://www.gst.gov.in/newsandupdates/read/578
2. The next date of implementation will be shared with you in due course of time.