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GST Transitional Claims of Over Rs 1 Cr to be Scrutinised While tax collections in July were Rs 95,000 cr, transitional credit claims are Rs 65,000 cr As much as Rs 65,000 crore out of the nearly Rs 95,000 crore tax collections in July -the first month of GST -have been claimed as transitional credit by taxpayers, prompting the apex indirect taxes body the Central Board of Excise and Customs to order a scrutiny of all cases above Rs 1 crore.   The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, which kicked in from July 1, allows tax credit on stock purchased during the previous tax regime. This facility is available only up to six months from the date of GST rollout. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the body which deals with formulation and implementation of policy concerning the levy and collection of indirect taxes, in a letter dated September 11 has asked tax officials to verify GST transitional credit claims of over `1 crore. In the transitional credit form TRAN-1 fi...

Driving Licences may be Linked to Aadhaar The government is planning to link driving licences with Aadhaar to curb duplicate and fake licences, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday.He said he has spoken to transport minister Nitin Gadkari about the linkage. “We are planning to link driving licence to Aadhaar. I have had a word with Gadkari-ji regarding this,“ said Prasad, while speaking at Digital Haryana Summit 2017. “So digital identity confirms physical identity with the help of digital tech nology,“ he said. A transport ministry official said they may not be able to comment on it since it is a state matter and transport is not in the central list. “We'll only be able to comment after we consult the states. However, from our side, we're already getting the entire database of driving licence in the country on a common platform so that there's no duplication anymore,“ said the official. On Friday, the government of Haryana in association with IT industry bo...

Tax authorities to scan transition credit claim of 162 companies As many as 162 companies, that have claimed the goods and services tax (GST) transitional credit of more than Rs 1 crore, are under the scanner of tax authorities. They would verify whether these claims are eligible. In the transitional credit form TRAN-1 filed by taxpayers along with their maiden returns for July, businesses have claimed credit of over Rs 65,000 crore for excise, service tax or VAT paid before the GST was rolled out from July 1. In view of such huge claims, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in a letter to chief commissioners said according to the GST law, carry forward of transitional credit is permitted only when such credit is permissible under the law. “The possibility of claiming ineligible credit due to mistake or confusion cannot be ruled out ,” CBEC said. CBEC asked the chief commissioners to send a report on the claims made by these 162 firms to it by September 20. The Business S...

GST squeezes exporters’ order books 15% drop across industries and product categories till Oct: FIEO Two months after the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), the order books of exporters are said to have taken a hit, with estimates pegging the impact by up to 15 per cent across industries and product categories. The impact could be seen even as exports saw double-digit rise in August year-on-year (y-o-y). According to an assessment by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the large drop was seen in export orders that were meant to be delivered until October. The dip, registered over a period of two months since July (when the GST was introduced), was largely on account of exporters not fulfilling orders due to lack of credit, said Ajay Sahai, director general at FIEO. The liquidity crunch had forced many to use available resources to manage existing business operations rather than fulfilling orders from abroad, he said. Though export growth accelerat...

Small creditors use bankruptcy rules to squeeze big players In late June, one of India's top wind power equipment makers, Inox Wind Ltd, was dragged into insolvency courts by a logistics handler over unpaid dues of Rs 88,000. Two weeks on, the matter was settled, with dues paid off. The case illustrates how small creditors and vendors, previously at the mercy of large debtors, are now using India's new bankruptcy code as a pressure ploy to secure payment of dues that would earlier have been all but impossible to recover. India overhauled bankruptcy laws last year with the main goal of helping banks tackle a Rs 150-billion bad loan issue that is crimping growth in the economy. Less than a year on, insolvency professionals say it is vendors and small suppliers, also referred to as operational creditors, who are using the new rules as leverage to recover dues much more effectively than banks owed far larger sums. "It is not necessarily a negative thing, but it was not the ...