Bid to curb malpractices: Sushil Modi

With 66.79 lakh new dealers registered under the Goods and Service Tax contributing just 15% of the total revenue under the tax regime, the GST Network has decided to make Aadhaar authentication or physical verification mandatory for new dealers from January 1, 2020, to check malpractices.

Briefing about the decisions taken at the GST meeting here, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who heads the Group of Ministers on Integrated Goods and Services Tax, told the media here that 66.79 lakh new registered dealers were paying just 15% of the taxes, constituting about ₹10,000 crore in monthly collections.

Monthly collections had crossed the ₹1 lakh-crore- mark in six out of eight months during April-November, 2019, he said.

The number of registrations under GST stood at 1.21 crore and of this, 55.04 lakh dealers had migrated from the pre-GST regime and 66.79 lakh were new registrations since the launch of GST. He said dealers who migrated to the GST contributed 85% of the total revenue.

“Aadhaar authentication will be made mandatory for new dealers for registration. We have noticed in two years that a large number of operators are registering themselves as GST dealers. They make fake invoices also.” He said those who declined to give their Aadhaar numbers would have to undergo physical verification.

A total 24.86 lakh fake or bogus registered dealers had been weeded out from the GST.

Mr. Modi ruled out any hike in GST rates in the near future. He said the Centre and States were not ready to raise tax rates as the economy was in a slowdown, affecting revenue mobilisation.

For ensuring smooth compliance by taxpayers and transparency, he said it was decided to launch the new GST returns filing system from April 1, 2020. Noting that “it will be a game-changer, ” Mr. Modi said the new system envisaged the concept of regular invoice upload and proposed to be fully automated involving the reconciliation of invoices before proceeding with input tax credit claims.

On blocking of e-way bill generation for non-compliant assessees, he said e-way bills would be automatically blocked for dealers who had not filed their monthly GST Return (GSTR)-3B for two consecutive months. About 3.47 lakh dealers’ e-way bills had been blocked, he said.

The government had notified the rule last month as an enforcement measure amid subdued revenue collection.

The last GST Council Meeting has decided to constitute the “Grievance Redressal Committee” (GRC) at the Zone and State Level with members from the CGST and SGST along with members from the trade industry, Mr. Modi said.