Skip to main content

Cos Face Queries Over Input Tax Credit Claims

By
India Inc could face a tax landmine with authorities beginning to question input tax credit claimed by companies in lieu of Goods and Services Tax paid by their vendors. The authorities have already started sending notices to businesses, confirming fears that scrutiny will increase in the new financial year as the government looks to plug leakages. Experts said notices have been sent in Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and some other states.
The issue has its origin in the provisions of the GST law that warrant a reversal of input tax credit claimed by a business if its vendor has not paid the tax for which credit is being claimed. Currently, there is no mechanism to ascertain if vendors have paid GST. The GST Network Portal allows viewing of the return-filing status of a registered person, but payment of tax cannot be determined. At best, buyers can only verify whether vendors have included the invoice in their GST filings.
Effectively, while a business may have paid the tax to a vendor for which it wants to claim credit, it may not be possible to ascertain if the vendor has deposited the GST. “In such a situation, requiring the buyers to forgo their input credits when they have already paid the GST to vendors and exercised due diligence to the extent possible does not seem like a fair proposition,” said Pratik Jain, national leader indirect tax at PwC.
Jain said given the stakes involved, the issue is likely to result in litigation. “The government needs to perhaps review the law and amend if they deem it appropriate. In any case, there should be some guidance provided to the taxpayers as to how the government expects them to ensure that vendors have indeed paid tax,” he said. Experts said there is a need for a facility to avail of non-reconciled input tax credits on a provisional basis as companies are compelled to pay in cash and block working capital.
Adequate safeguards to check misuse of the facility such as a time limit to complete the pending compliance/reconciliation can also be prescribed to protect revenue,” said MS Mani, a partner at Deloitte India.They said this will induce more compliance.“This will push the sellers to be more compliant and make the buyers put robust processes in place lest they lose credits,” said Bipin Sapra, a partner at EY.
The Economic Times, 30th April 2019

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

By
  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
Post a Comment
Read more

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

By
  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
Post a Comment
Read more

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

By
  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
Post a Comment
Read more