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GSTN tweaked features, handled robust August return filing: CEO GST Network (GSTN) has tweaked some of the features on its portal over the past month to make the system more robust and allow glitch-free tax payment facility to nearly 35 lakh assessees, its CEO Prakash Kumar said on Sunday. Of the total 87.33 lakh registered businesses on the GSTN, which manages the IT infrastructure of the new tax regime, 68 lakh were eligible to pay taxes in August. Of the total registered taxpayers, 24.56 lakh are new registrations, while 62.77 lakh have migrated from the earlier excise, service tax and VAT regime. Mr. Kumar said the GSTN portal has handled a humongous load of filing of 1.3 lakh tax returns filing and payment per hour on September 20 — the last day of filing of August tax returns. The Hindu, New Delhi, 25th September 2017

Ministers have to ensure new laws do not lead to litigation In future, if a central ministry plans to bring in a new law, it may have to declare whether its enactment will lead to a spurt in court cases. The ministries will also have to ensure that the new law or an amendment to an existing Act does not lead to a increase in litigations, a senior government functionary has said quoting a document. The note has been written by Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary to his senior minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and the Cabinet Secretariat. The functionary said proposed bills should also focus on alternative dispute resolution to ensure that disputes arising out of laws are settled out-of-court. If the government accepts the suggestion, then all future bills placed in Parliament would carry a “litigation assessment” clause and the ministry concern will have to explain whether it expects litigations once the legislation becomes a law. “The focus is to ensure that laws do not attract cour

CII seeks extension of time for filing GST returns The Confederation of Indian Industry on Sunday sought extension of time by two months for filing of goods and services tax (GST) returns in view of difficulties being faced by businesses. The GST Council has already extended the last date for filing final returns to October 10. The CII has now requested for further extension to resolve certain system issues. In view of difficulties of online filing, the industry body suggested that “the due dates for filing GSTR1, GSTR2 and GSTR3 should be deferred for another month or two”. The chamber also suggested no penal action against trade and industry by the revenue department in the initial six months of GST launch. GST was introduced on July 1. It said the GST Network system response should be enhanced to allow download, preview details, and take prints for reconciliation, before submission. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 25th September 2017

DIPP readies framework to rank states on start up ecosystem To give a boost to startups, the Centre has initiated an exercise to rank states and Union territories on the basis of measures being taken by them to promote budding entrepreneurs,a government official has said. “We have discussed the initial framework. Soon, we will be formalising that. By next month, we will be able to prepare that,” the official added. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will facilitate the process of ranking and it would be done by a third party.“We are holding detailed consultations on parameters over which ranking can be done,” the official, who did not want to be named, said. The framework for ranking states and UTs on the basis of initiatives taken by them to promote startups was discussed in the state startup conference earlier this month. Parameters, which are under discussion, for the rankings include a well defined start-up policy, start-up cell, portal, network of mento