New Changes made in GST & Taxation - The Economic Transcript

INTRODUCTION:

One Nation, one tax…

The Goods & Service Tax was in force from July 1, 2017, as introduced and notified by the Government of India. The GST was a much-needed taxation revolution in a country that has a growing economy. Nevertheless, the GST is in force for the last 3 years and has gone through numerous amendments and reforms within itself like an Amoeba. The year 2020 has been of hardships right from the outbreak of pandemic which has caused an unprecedented economic loss individually as well as on a whole for the entire nation. The Government of India has introduced a series of changes in the GST Structure while the Country continues to face the storm of the virus.

New GST Changes:

Recently the senior officials announced major changes in the GST structure with the prime focus being the scrapping of new returns structure which was proposed last year and streamlining the existing GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B returns.

The new changes under the GST Structure are:

The GSTN Common portal’s capacity has been enhanced to handle 3 lakh taxpayers at any point in time, from the existing 1.5 lakh taxpayers at a single time. The doubling of this figure on its portal will make the job easier for the taxpayers to some extent.
d that the IGST paid on the Imported goods would directly be merged with the GST PIn the cases where the invoices are amended, the GSTR-2A will now show the original return filing date and the amended date which shall ease the tracking.
It is saiortal from the ICEGATE (Indian Customs Electronic Gateway) and the same shall be now visible on the GST Portal.
The introduction of amendments to credit and debit notes and the delinking of original invoice details so that the taxpayers are not required to report the original invoice details while filing GSTR 1 and GSTR 6 is another step taken while re- framing the structure.
A new refined format of e-invoice has been notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs adding 20 new fields and removing 13 fields.
It is mentioned that the e-Invoicing system shall apply to those taxpayers with an annual turnover exceeding Rs 500 crore instead of Rs 100 crore.
Special Economic Zones units shall be now exempted from issuing e-invoices.

GST Registration:

Furthermore, for GST Registration too, Aadhar authentication is made available. The rules are amended w.e.f 21^st August 2020.

For Availing Aadhar authentication, it must be completed while submitting the application. Applicants would be required to submit the details prior the date of Aadhar authentication or 15 days from the submission of the application in Part B of Form GST REG-01.
For the rest of the applicants, physical verification of place of business will be carried out, including document verification, as the case may be, with due permissions.

41^st GST Council meeting:

The 41^st GST Council meeting has been scheduled for 27^th August 2020 via Video Conferencing with the key item on agenda being the ways to compensate for the GST revenue shortfall to the states. For the said meeting, the Union Finance Minister has announced a shortfall of Rs.2,35,000 Crore shortfall in the GST Collection for the F.Y. 2020-21 out of which Rs.97,000 crores are due to GST Implementation & the rest is considered citing Covid-19 as an Act of God.

Income Tax Regime:

From the F.Y. 2020-21, the Individual taxpayer not having the Business Income will have to either continue with the existing income tax regime & avail deductions & exemptions under the Income Tax act or adhere to the new tax regime with lower income tax rates sans deductions and exemptions. As announced in Budget 2020, if an employer contribution to Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), National Pension System (NPS), and superannuation fund on an aggregate basis exceeds Rs 7.5 lakh in an F.Y., then the excess will be taxable in the hands of the employee. A taxpayers’ charter is also proposed to be inserted into the Income-tax act to facilitate the Taxpayers. On availing deduction on the loans for an affordable house, the timeline to avail a loan for buying an affordable house to avail deduction under section 80EEA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 has been extended till March 31, 2021.

Undoubtedly, there has been a series of amendments and reforms in the Direct and Indirect Tax regimes in India due to the unprecedented Covid-19 outbreak. Many reforms have been announced and can be beneficial to the taxpayers or a pinch to the taxpayers.

But, how much of these reforms can actually provide some aid and relief to the grievances of the common people who would definitely need some reality check in the near future ?

Authored by: Harshal Mukesh Desai.

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