GST council meeting is scheduled on Saturday to have the discussion over the two important topics- the successful implementation of the e-way bill and the lower collection of goods and service tax (GST) under the composite scheme.
A senior finance ministry official also said, “Two things will be on the top of agenda in the next GST Council meet on Saturday. First is the timely implementation of the E-way bill and secondly the falling GST collection under the composite scheme. Both issues had already been flagged by the revenue secretary.”
The government has decided to start e-way bill system with the implementation of GST for the inter-state movement of goods worth more than 50,000. However, it was supposed to be started from 1st February, but due to the technical glitch, it could not be started. Therefore, the system is continued running but in trial mode until 1st April. As the launching of the system will be on 1st April decided by the council.
The council official also said that “Now that there is less than a month for implementation, the GST Council wants to ensure that this time there is no technical glitch. The finance secretary had already sought a report on the reasons for technical failure and a progress report. The report will be discussed in the meet,”
The second equally important issue to discuss in the meeting is failing of GST collection under the composite scheme. The GST collection has seen the loss, as in December the collection stands at 86,703 crores while in January it stands at 86,318 crores only, very less than the government has expected. As according to the data from GSTN portal, 7.28 crore GST return have been filled since the implementation of GST. And for the month of January, 56.72 lakh returns were filed.
Whereas, after the implementation of GST, 1.23 lakh companies that have been registered under the composite scheme have opted out from their and have become the regular taxpayers. The official also said that the response has not been as expected. The government expected better revenue. These things will be taken up in the meeting. He also said that there will be no major changes to be done in tax slabs to increase the revenue collection.
Also, while the council will also discuss the simplification of GST return filing process, the GSTR-3B filing will be continued until the decided date. In the meeting held in November, the council has extended the date of filing of GSTR-3B until the march end.
