Close to Rs 34,000 crore worth of tax liabilities may have been under-reported in GST returns filed between July and December.

According to Times of India, the GST council has noted that businessmen have disclosed different values in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the same items, which may be one of the reasons for the discrepancy.

The report quoted officials as saying the tax-payers did not expect the government to cross-check the two documents after filing them.

Value of imported products has been found to be lower than its actual value, likely done with the intention that lesser than required GST is paid at every step.

For example, a laptop costing Rs 30,000 would be priced at Rs 20,000 to avail a lower GST.

The report also said the government has yet to implement the checks on the GST network that would prevent such tax evasion. This includes the invoice matching to compare sales with purchases, as well as the e-way bills that show the movement from factories to showrooms.

The report quoted tax consultants as saying the different numbers in both forms is valid, as the the GSTR-3B takes up the time of payment of taxes, input tax credit accumulated over months is used, along with the current periods.

This is not the case with GSTR-1, which is just like a sales register with invoices attached.

A senior official at the Central Board of Excise and Customs said that physical copies of the returns need to be looked at to understand the reasons for the difference. A comparison of the revenues would give a few pointers concerning the under-payments.The report further spoke to a financial consultant saying that the comparison of revenue figures from the returns filed would give an idea about the cases of under-payment of GST. There was also the need for the increased focus on analysing the data patterns emerging from the various GST returns filed by businesses to get to the bottom of the issue.

 

 

Source: Moneycontrol

 

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