Budget 2024 has provided some relief to individuals and companies registered under (Goods and Services Tax) GST. This relief comes in the form of a conditional scheme that allows for the waiver of interest and penalty for specified non-fraudulent GST demand notices for the financial years 2017-18 to 2019-20.

"This is one of the most anticipated and welcomed step taken by the Central Government for bringing in waiver of interest and penalty for every taxpayer, be it an individual, a company, or otherwise," says Apoorv Phillips, Senior Associate, Sirmacs Consultancy Services (Law Firm).

Which GST notices are eligible for waiver penalty and interest
Experts say that the benefit of this conditional waiver scheme applies only if you have received a section 73 GST notice, i.e., non-fraud notice.

The re-constituted Group of Minister (GoM) is looking into various aspects of rate rationalisation under the GST, and it will submit a report on whether there is a need to revamp the GST rate structure, and examine the requirement of converging GST slabs, Central Board of Indirect Taxes Chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said on Wednesday.

In an interview with FE, Agarwal said that some discussion on rationalising slabs is going on, and a three slab GST structure is “very much a possibility”. Presently the GST structure has four slabs – 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, last month, had said after the GST Council would take up the “important agenda” of rate rationalisation at the next meeting, likely in August. The re-constituted Group of Ministers on this, headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, would make a detailed presentation on the work done so far and the unfinished agenda in the next meeting of the Council, the minister said.

1. In reference to Circular No. 227/21/2024-GST issued by GST policy wing, CBIC on 11th July, 2024 for online processing of refund applications filed by Canteen Stores Department (CSD), GSTN has developed an online functionality to enable CSDs to file an application for refund in FORM GST RFD-10A in GST common portal.

2. The pre-requisites & relevant date for filing refund application under this category are mentioned in Para 4, 5 & 6 of the said Circular. The applicants are advised to refer the same for details in this regard.

3. The process to be followed for filing refund application under the said category is as below:

a. Login into the GST portal. Click on Services -> Refund -> Application for Refund.

b. Select "Refund of tax paid on Inward supply of goods by Canteen Store Department(CSD)".

c. Select Period for which refund is to be applied, by selecting From & To Period and then clicking on "Create Refund" application.

d. The refund applications on GST portal are to be filed sequentially with respect to tax periods. If there is no refund to be claimed for a particular period, CSD needs to file a NIL refund claim for that period. Once a refund is filed or NIL refund claim is filed for a particular period, the system will not allow filing for the same period again. Similarly, it will not allow the taxpayer to file for any previous periods.

The state cabinet on Monday granted approval to introduce a bill in the monsoon session of Goa legislative assembly to amend The Goa Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Once passed, the act will impose a penalty and allow for confiscation of unregistered machines in case of a failure to register these machines used in the manufacture of notified goods.

As per communication from the GST council secretariat, amendments have been made to the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 as per recommendations of the GST Council. These have been carried out through the Finance Act, 2024. States are required to carry out amendments in the State GST Act. Goa will make the amendments in the Goa Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 the cabinet note said.
The proposed amendments are in the light of recommendations in the 50th GST Council meeting which provides that input service distributor (ISD) procedure as laid down in section 20 of the CGST Act, 2017 may be made mandatory for distribution of input tax credit (ITC) in respect of input services procured by Head Office (HO) from a third party but attributable to both head office (HO) and branch office (BO), or exclusively to one or more BOs.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) via a social media post on July 19, 2024, said that the biometric-based Aadhaar authentication process for Goods and Services Tax (GST) Registration has been made compulsory for those taxpayers who have been identified based on data analytics and risk parameters.

Moreover, the CBIC also said that taxpayers who do not opt for biometric based Aadhaar authentication need to mandatorily visit the GST Suvidha Kendra for photo capturing and document verification.

The new rule is applicable in all states and UTs
According to the CBIC's post on X (formerly Twitter), "To PAN India roll out the Provisions of sub-rule (4A) of rule 8 of CGST Rules, 2017 as done by the Center vide Notification No. 04/2023 dated 31.03.2023 have been made applicable to all the States/Union Territories for biometric authentication of Aadhaar number and in-person verification of the applicant before grant of registration in cases identified based on data analytics and risk parameters."

Even after six years of introduction of the GST regime, 23,374 taxpayers have continuously been under the composition scheme (not coming under GST intentionally by showing turnover of less than 20 lakh) for more than three years, the commercial taxes department has found out.
The department’s exercise to curb leakages in the system found that 19,277 taxpayers have not filed returns right from the date of registration.

Given these anomalies and after cross-checking various bills, the commercial taxes department has launched a special drive for GST registration for 10 days from July 15.

Based on the information provided by analytics of e-Way bills purchased by unregistered persons, banks, income tax department and digital payment platforms, the commercial taxes department came across instances of several dealers handling transactions in cash to evade GST .

GSTN wish to inform that NIC is releasing the integrated services from e-invoice-1 and e-invoice-2 portals on 18th July 2024 on sandbox portals and 1st Aug 2024 on the production portals. These portals run in parallel and now allow for seamlessly inter-operations. The highlights of the portal are as follows:

i. Both the portals (NIC-IRP 1 & 2) provide the web and API modes for e-invoice related services.
ii. The taxpayers can use the same login credentials to operate e-invoice1 and e-invoice-2 portals.
iii. In case of API, the same token can be used for the services of e-invoices and e-waybills on both the portals.
iv. The taxpayers can use the e-invoice-2 portal during technical glitches in e-invoice main portal or any other exigencies.
v. The Criss-Cross operations of printing, downloading and cancelling can be carried out on these portals. That is, printing, downloading and cancelling of e-invoices of the portal 1 can be done at portal 2 and vice versa.
vi. In case e-invoice-1 is non-operational because of technical reasons, then the e-invoice-2 portal can be used for all the services of the e-invoices.
vii. Please visit the sandbox portal (einv-apisandbox.nic.in) for URLs of APIs and other details.
viii. Please test all the APIs in sandbox environment before rolling on the production environment.
ix. In addition to NIC-IRP, four other e-invoice portals are operated for the convenience of the taxpayer. The users can avail similar e-invoicing services on IRP-3/IRP-4/IRP-5 and IRP-6 portals also.

The government has set a uniform IGST rate of 5% on all aircraft and aircraft engine parts, effective July 15, to boost domestic maintenance, repair, and overhaul industry. IGST, or Integrated Goods and Services Tax, is levied on interstate transactions of taxable goods and services as well as on imports of goods and services.

Previously, the diverse GST rates ranging from 5% to 28% on aircraft components posed challenges such as an inverted duty structure and GST accumulation in MRO accounts. The new uniform rate eliminates such disparities, simplifies the tax structure, and fosters growth in the MRO sector, said Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjrapu Rammohan Naidu.

The uniform 5% IGST rate aims to reduce operational costs, resolve tax credit issues, and attract investment. The move was recommended by the GST Council in its 53rd meeting last month.

App-based mobility providers such as Uber have approached the finance ministry, Goods and Services Tax Council and the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) seeking clarity on whether their business was liable to tax or not.

The move follows a decision from the Karnataka AAR that held that Bengaluru-based direct-to-driver app Namma Yatri was not liable to pay GST. The AAR, in the case of Juspay Technologies that runs the Namma Yatri mobility platform, relied upon the dictionary meaning of the word "through" and held that the mere act of linking service providers with customers through a digital platform did not constitute a supply of service and thus not liable to tax.

1. GST Council has approved that application of refund of additional IGST paid on account of upward revision in prices of goods subsequent to exports may also be processed by Tax Administration. Accordingly, Notification No. 12/2024-Central Tax dt. 10th July, 2024 has also been issued. GSTN is in the process of development of a separate category of refund application in FORM GST RFD-01, for filing an application of refund of additional IGST paid on account of upward revision in prices of goods subsequent to exports.

2. However, till the time such separate category for claiming refund of additional amount of IGST paid is developed on the common portal, such exporter(s) may claim refund of the additional IGST by filing an application of refund in FORM GST RFD-01 under the category “Any other” with remarks “Refund of additional IGST paid on account of increase in price subsequent to export of goods” and uploading of Statement 9A & 9B (Refer to Notification No. 12/2024-Central Tax dt. 10th July, 2024) along with the relevant documents as specified in the Circular 226/20/2024-GST dated. 11.07.2024.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has reconstituted a ministerial group tasked with identifying possible sources of revenue evasion, improving coordination between the central and State GST authorities, and reviewing the IT systems in place for implementing the indirect tax.

These changes have been effected in order to bring in new ministers from the States of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhatisgarh where new governments have been installed in recent months, as well as replace the representative from Haryana.

The reconstitution of this critical GST panel comes soon after the Council reformulated the ministerial group tasked with recommending a rationalisation of the GST rate structure and its tax rates. The panel, originally headed by former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, is now headed by Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has reconstituted a ministerial group tasked with identifying possible sources of revenue evasion, improving coordination between the central and State GST authorities, and reviewing the IT systems in place for implementing the indirect tax.


These changes have been effected in order to bring in new ministers from the States of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhatisgarh where new governments have been installed in recent months, as well as replace the representative from Haryana.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued a fresh guideline to address the recovery of outstanding dues till the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) becomes functional.

Taxpayers can escape the tax recovery process by paying the pre-deposit amount via their electronic liability register and filing an undertaking with the jurisdictional proper officer. The circular issued late Thursday will ensure that taxpayers are not forced into recovery proceedings due to the absence of the Tribunal. The apex body of indirect taxes in India has introduced a mechanism to adjust payments made through FORM GST DRC-03 towards the pre-deposit requirements, which will be available on the common portal. Taxpayers once after making payment, can inform the proper officer, who have to delay recovery proceedings. "The taxpayer also needs to file an undertaking/ declaration with the jurisdictional proper officer that he will file appeal against the said order of the appellate authority before the Appellate Tribunal, as and when it comes into operation, within the timelines mentioned in section 112 of the CGST Act," the circular said. In absence of deposits, the recovery proceedings will commence as per the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, the circular says.

Earlier in June, the CBIC had said the officers should not recover GST dues before the stipulated three months of serving of demand order. Only when the person does not pay the amount within three months from the date of service of such order, the tax officer can initiate recovery proceedings.

Goods and services tax (GST) will be applied to 1 per cent of corporate guarantee fees on an annual basis and become applicable from October 23, 2023, the government has said.
This will give relief to companies.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has notified the rules following the decision on corporate guarantees in the GST Council meeting on June 22.

Besides, there is a provision for taxing invoices for corporate-guarantee services among related entities. By this the recipient is eligible for full input tax credit.

This is relief for businesses, which in various cases faced concern on cash flows.

Restricting the deemed valuation (1 per cent per annum) to only domestic transactions would be helpful, said Abhishek Jain, partner and national head (indirect tax), KPMG.
The CBIC has also come up with an enabling provision for allowing rectification of GSTR-1 for businesses. “The modus operandi prescribed should not significantly impact the input tax credit reconciliation process for businesses” Jain said.

In a major relief for the industry and GST taxpayers in the country, the government has decided to send any GST demand notices to the taxpayers, only once there is approval from the North Block.

According to official sources, "The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) can not send any tax demand notices where it is an interpretation or a classification matter, without the approval of the policy wing under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC)."

DGGI is the central intelligence agency of CBIC, which keeps a close vigil on tax dues, tax unpaid, tax evasion and misreporting of taxes, under the GST regime.

The investigative arm was often accused of sending notices to taxpayers, and industry, where the industry held a different view and the intelligence arm held a different assessment of taxes, leading to stuck payments, delays in taxes and piling up of cases.

Dear Taxpayers,

The Following enhancements have been made to address-related fields in the registration functionalities: New Registration, Amendment Application (Core & Non-Core), and Geocoding Business Addresses. These enhancements are based on the analysis of tickets and user feedback. The details are as follows:

1. Update in Validations applicable while entering the address in address-related fields.

a. Address is in India:

• The fields PIN Code, State, District, and City/Town/Village are interlinked and must be selected from the autosuggestions.

• For other fields, taxpayer in addition to alphanumeric values can add limited special characters such as Hyphen (-), Forward Slash (/), Ampersand (&), Comma (,), Apostrophes ('), Hash(#), Period(.), Small Brackets (), Inverted Commas (""), Colon (:), Semi Colon (;), Underscore (_) and Space. Other Special Characters are not allowed.

• Additionally, special characters are not allowed at the beginning of the entry.
• Example: When entering an address, you can input "123 Main St. #4, Apt (5A)" but not "#123 Main St." as special characters like the hash(#) are not permitted at the beginning.

CBIC Chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal on Wednesday said the decisions taken at the GST Council meeting last month, like amnesty scheme for initial years of rollout and sunset date for profiteering complaints, will be incorporated into the Finance Bill to be tabled in Parliament, along with the Budget later this month.

Addressing the NACIN-Bhopal's flagship programme on GST, Agarwal said at the 53rd GST Council meeting rate rationalisation was proposed on some goods and services, while in some cases clarifications have been issued.

"For cases of dispute resolution and settlement which have arisen at the time of GST rollout during the challenges faced by small businesses, on those issues several decisions have been taken which may be become part of the Finance Bill so that necessary changes can be brought in the GST law," Agarwal said.

Even as the country marked the seventh anniversary of the implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) on 1 July, eyebrows are being raised over the discontinuation of the release of monthly tax collection data by the Centre.

The union Ministry of Finance has been issuing a formal statement on the first day of every month providing a comprehensive overview of GST collections.

The most recent data release hosted on the Press Information Bureau website for GST collections in the month of May was released on June 1.

For June, GST collections stand at Rs 1.74 lakh crore. This data was not shared in a formal press release, but provided to reporters informally.

The gross goods and services tax (GST) collection for June 2024 stood at Rs 1.74 trillion, marking 7.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth, an official source disclosed to Business Standard.
This Y-o-Y growth is notably less than the 12.4 per cent and 10 per cent increases recorded in April and May, respectively. Month-on-month figures, too, were flat.

In May this year, the gross GST collection amounted to Rs 1.73 trillion, while April witnessed a record-high GST collection of Rs 2.1 trillion. The June revenue brought the financial year-to-date total to Rs 5.57 trillion, said the source.

With Goods and Services Tax (GST) reaching its seventh-year mark, one should acknowledge and appreciate the endless efforts of the Indian Government for implementing it in a country which has had a history of complex and multi-tier indirect tax laws. The Ministry of Finance, along with the GST Council, has undertaken a major responsibility of bringing in many clarifications by issuing over 300 circulars in the last seven years, focusing on trade facilitation, reducing the burden of compliance, and providing relief to taxpayers. This has demonstrated to the global market that India is capable of rapid growth and evolution, with emphasis on enhancing the ease of doing business in the economy.

This approach has also benefited the Government, which is evident from the significant increase in GST revenue collections over the last few years.

Introduced seven years ago, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has simplified compliance, improved tax buoyancy and increased states' revenues, but fake invoices and fraudulent registration remain a big challenge for policymakers trying to curb tax evasion.

Rolled out on July 1, 2017, Goods and Services Tax (GST) streamlined 17 taxes and 13 cesses into a 5-tier structure, simplifying the tax regime. The turnover threshold for registration rose to Rs 40 lakh for goods and Rs 20 lakh for services (up from Rs 5 lakh on average under VAT). GST also reduced 495 different submissions (challan, forms, declarations, etc) across states to just 12.

In seven years, the number of registered taxpayers has risen to 1.46 crore from 65 lakh in 2017. Average monthly GST revenues, soared from around Rs 90,000 crore in 2017-18, to about Rs 1.90 lakh crore in 2024-25. According to the government data, GST has improved tax buoyancy from 0.72 (pre-GST) to 1.22 (2018-23). Despite compensation ending, state revenues remain buoyant at 1.15.