The Central Goods & Service Tax Department, Belagavi arranged an Interactive meeting with The Belgaum Chamber of Commerce and Industries Office Bearers and Members and CA Association and Tax Practitioner Association.
The Delegation from Belgaum Chamber of Commerce and Industries highlighted some Key Problems & offered suggestions related to the GST, which are mentioned as below.
- The Utilisation of ITC mechanism is resulting in accumulation of CGST Input Credit. Suggestion – The Utilisation of ITC to beallowed.
- Revocation of Registration beyond 90 days is not accepted by the Portal, No proper and convenient mechanism is availble to the assessee, except for request letter. Suggestion- To provide a Convenient and easy mechanism in the portal it self.
- ITC in Cases of Full Payment. Suggestion – To Allow the ITC in cases where full payment is made to supplier.
- Eway Bill verification. Suggestion- Lenient view must be taken by SGST where there is clerical mistake in Invoice & e-way bills & where prima facie of the documents are otherwise correct (Eway bill verification should be limited to verify that there is no tax evasion & other typing / clearical mistakes should not be stressed upon.)
- GST Appeal Bench. Suggestion- Request for district wise tribunal for GST appeals or at least North & South Karnataka Appeal bench is much required for convinience and speed of resolution of issues.
- Minimum criteria of Rs 200 presently for raising sale bill. Suggestion- Criteria of raising sale bill to be increased from Present Rs 200 to Rs. 2000, as the inflation rate is high & commodity prices being high, Rs 200 value is not viable administratively.
- Role of Test Purchase Inspection. Suggestion – Define the role and scope of the test purchase inspection officer who is visiting for test purchase & help create awareness of the same to the assessees.
- Quarterly GSTR-1 return Input Claim. Suggestion- Since quarterly upload of GSTR-1 is in practice by many of the Firms & organizations, dealers are facing problem that have monthly filling system. Disabling him to avail ITC.
- Tax Slab for Cloth, Fabrics & Shoes. Suggestion-Tax on Cloth, fabrics & shoes which were earlier under 5% slab for below 1000 & 12% slab for above 1000, to be brought under single slab of 5% as these are essential commodities.
- Compensation cess. Suggestions-Compensation cess should not be extended, beyond the actual stipulated date
- ITC on GST Audit. Suggestion- ITC Should be allowed on GST paid over GST Audit fees.
- GST Audit of 2017-2018 & 2018-2019. Suggestion- Since GST Law was new during 2017-18 & 2018-19 , request not to conduct departmental audit for these period as the laws were new and everyone was not well versed with frequent amendments, as GST audit for this periods are already Audited by Chartered Accountants and the same can be reinstated .Error rectification should be allowed immediately so that tax remittance is not delayed and there by penalty and interest burden is avoided.
- Visits of GST officer. Suggestion- in Market area Frequently visit without prior intimation of officers with the dealers are disturbing the daily business activities and hampering the Business.
- Penalties in GST. Suggestion- Penalties in GST are very high for small business where the Invoice value is comparatively very small, So request is to link the penalties to the tune of tax evasion and not as the present scheme which dictates a minimum of Rs. 20,000.
- Interaction with GST Officials. Suggestion- We request you to have a Bimonthly Interactive meeting with BCCI Members.
- A GST Supplier has to pay Total GST amount incured during the month, & Purchaser getting the ITC in that same period. But the supllier is getting the payment of GST amount after 90 to 120 days. Traders & Manufacturers are paying the GST thorugh their own Capital fund, which is usually the Bank provided working capital. Suggestion- A proper mechanism to be adopted for purchasers who fails to pay the Purchase amount within 30 days of billing & or the ITC amount has to be borne by the Purchaser.
- Issue of RCM in Tobacco. Suggestion- Since there is confusion in this particular item of trade , where in the tobacco leaves are processed and segrated from dust and stem and sold from farmer to trader ,where in this form the tobacco still remains in its raw form and cannot be treated as processed or in the form of consumable so the tax of higher rate of 28% as levied in some cases should be revoked and a proper assessment be done so as to avoid wrong classification of the product. A proper mechanism to be adopted as in other state which facilitates the growth of the industry and the farmer. Karnataka will loose this business to other states due to lack of such mechanism in classification of this commodity