Cos Fear Losing Credit Over GST Filing Errors

Cos Fear Losing Credit Over GST Filing Errors

Industry bats for extension of filing deadline citing delay in getting offline utility

A company with Rs.100 crore credit in lieu of taxes paid in the past regime, risks losing it now under the goods and services tax (GST) reign simply because of the `fat finger,' as it is popularly called.

With the August 28 (Monday) deadline looming for filing returns and ensuring GST compliance, corporates are a deeply concerned lot. The offline utility for GST TRAN 1 form to be used to claim input tax credit for the pre-GST regime -was not available till Sunday , leaving just a day for filing returns and causing a weekend rush.

In absence of the utility, details had to be filed online with higher chances of error. Tax practioners struggled to meet the deadline, having had to deploy additional manpower to manually key in invoices, some running into thousands.

What has compounded the industry's worry is that there is no clarity on whether TRAN 1 can be revised later for any inadvertent human error (or fat finger) due to manual entry or will it simply mean losing tax credit.

This has led to a clamour for another extension of the deadline or a provision allowing amending of the form later. The government had already extended the deadline once for those seeking to claim transitional credit from the past regime from August 20 to August 28, following industry representations.

WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

An offline utility allows entry of details, careful scrutiny and subsequent submission, reducing chances of errors while online filing may lead to fat finger errors.

One company ET is aware of has already made errors in filing online and is worried about losing its accumulated input credit.

Taxpayers are required to provide all details separately -invoice-wise or challan-wise. These can pertain to claim of Cenvat or value added tax credit on capital goods, details of stocks at job workers' premises, concessional rate of central sales tax claimed under the previous regime and claims where invoices were not received till June 30.

In some companies, these details would run into thousands of lines of items, where each line would need to be punched manually in the specified field in the online forms. Further, TRAN 1 (and consequently, all such details) is to be submitted for each jurisdiction where the entity has registration. Absence of the offline utility thus becomes a significant issue.

The GSTN, an official said, is working overtime to ensure that all IT requirements with regard to compliance are met.

The industry, however, has already demanded a tech audit of the GST Network. The Confederation of All India Traders last week asked the government to order a tech audit of GSTN in the wake of filing issues. Another official said the government is keeping a close watch on the situation.

`POSTPONE COMPLIANCE'

Tax experts are pitching for pushing forward the compliance calendar.

“Problems in filing TRAN 1 returns due to absence of (offline) utility is compounded by inadvertent errors made in filing, with no recourse or visibility of a change in the returns...The compliance calendar should be pushed forward to allow GSTN to be fully ready with its software,“ said Bipin Sapra, partner, EY.

“Without any utility on GSTN for filing TRAN 1, companies have to manually punch thousands of invoice and other details on the portal. It is both time-consuming and error-prone. Also, there is confusion as to whether TRAN 1 can be revised later (or not),“ said Pratik Jain, indirect tax leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jain said the industry would hope for an extension of the timeline for filing TRAN 1 once the utility is in place and an immediate clarification that it can be revised at least till September 30.

MS Mani, senior director, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, pointed out that service providers are equally hit.“Several businesses that had filed their service tax returns by August 15 and thereafter realised they are required to revise the service tax returns are now in a quandary.“

The Economic Times, New Delhi, 28th August 2017

RBI deputy governor cautions fintech platform lenders on privacy concerns during loan recovery

India's digital lending infrastructure has made the loan sanctioning system online. Yet, loan recovery still needs a “feet on the street” approach, Swaminathan J, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said at a media event on Tuesday, September 2, according to news agency ANI.According to the ANI report, the deputy governor flagged that fintech operators in the digital lending segment are giving out loans to customers with poor credit profiles and later using aggressive recovery tactics.“While loan sanctioning and disbursement have become increasingly digital, effective collection and recovery still require a 'feet on the street' and empathetic approach. Many fintech platforms operate on a business model that involves extending small-value loans to customers often with poor credit profiles,” Swaminathan J said. Fintech platforms' business models The central bank deputy governor highlighted that many fintech platforms' business models involve providing sm

Credit card spending growth declines on RBI gaze, stress build-up

Credit card spends have further slowed down to 16.6 per cent in the current financial year (FY25), following the Reserve Bank of India’s tightening of unsecured lending norms and rising delinquencies, and increased stress in the portfolio.Typically, during the festival season (September–December), credit card spends peak as several credit card-issuing banks offer discounts and cashbacks on e-commerce and other platforms. This is a reversal of trend in the past three financial years stretching to FY21 due to RBI’s restrictions.In the previous financial year (FY24), credit card spends rose by 27.8 per cent, but were low compared to FY23 which surged by 47.5 per cent. In FY22, the spending increased 54.1 per cent, according to data compiled by Macquarie Research.ICICI Bank recorded 4.4 per cent gross credit losses in its FY24 credit card portfolio as against 3.2 per cent year-on-year. SBI Cards’ credit losses in the segment stood at 7.4 per cent in FY24 and 6.2 per cent in FY23, the rep

India can't rely on wealthy to drive growth: Ex-RBI Dy Guv Viral Acharya

India can’t rely on wealthy individuals to drive growth and expect the overall economy to improve, Viral Acharya, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday.Acharya, who is the C V Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern), said after the Covid-19 pandemic, rural consumption and investments have weakened.We can’t be pumping our growth through the rich and expect that the economy as a whole will do better,” he said while speaking at an event organised by Elara Capital here.f there has to be a trickle-down, it should have actually happened by now,” Acharya said, adding that when the rich keep getting wealthier and wealthier, they have a savings problem. “The bank account keeps getting bigger, hence they look for financial assets to invest in. India is closed, so our money can't go outside India that easily. So, it has to chase the limited financial assets in the country and

CA Online

Search This Blog