Taxpayers alert! What Modi government is doing to tackle grievances on GST issues

The GST Council in its 38th meeting held on December 18 has decided that a structured mechanism be set up for the taxpayers under GST to tackle grievances of taxpayers on GST-related issues of specific/general nature. Now, in a major development, the Finance Ministry has notified setting up of a GST grievance redress committee at zonal/state level.

It was approved in the last GST Council meeting this month, Commissioner of AGST Policy wing of the Finance Ministry in a letter to all Chief Commissioners of Central Tax & GST and all Chief Commissioners/Commissioners of State Tax said on Wednesday, as per a report in IANS.

What GST Council had approved?

The Council had approved the constitution of 'Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC)' at Zonal/StateAlevel consisting of both Central Tax and State Tax officers, representatives of trade and industry and other GST stakeholders.

What will the committee do?

The Committee will examine and resolve all issues being faced by the taxpayers, including procedural difficulties and IT-related issues pertaining to GST.

It also can refer any issue requiring a change in Act/rules/notification/ form/circular/instruction to the GST Council Secretariat and the relevant Policy Wing of the CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom). IT-related issues will be referred to GSTN.

Earlier, it was reported that a panel of officials on ways to augment Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue has suggested two GST slabs of 10 per cent and 20 per cent and the transfer of some goods from the 18 per cent slab back to the highest 28 per cent category.

The GST council has fixed over 1,300 goods and 500 services under four GST slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. This is besides the tax on gold which is at 3 per cent and rough, semi-precious and precious stones that attract a special rate of 0.25 per cent under GST.

The panel has made a presentation to the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi who is heading the panel on GST revenue augmentation.

The recommendations could be discussed at the next GST Council meeting provided they make to the agenda, which has to be approved by all the states.

In its presentation, the committee alerted that there could be a shortfall of Rs 63,200 crore in GST collections in the current financial year and a deficit of as much as Rs 2 lakh crore by 2021.

Citing the suggestions made by the officials' panel, informed sourcs here said that its recommendations on increasing the GST revenue include moving items from 5 per cent and 12 per cent tax slabs to higher ones like 18 per cent, such as moving mobile phones from 12 to 18 per cent and precious metals from 3 to 5 per cent.