GST is a complex taxation reform, it enhanced the compliance burden on taxpayers and they are facing problems in filing returns. To get rid of this problem, the government had informed to the tax officials to keep an eye on the activities of the newly implemented indirect tax regime. The government said, to set up some computers and officials have to submit the filing forms at GSTN portal, so it’s easier for the government to find out the issues.
There were some officials who completed the task easily, whereas there were few officials who faced difficulties in filling forms. According to the sources, “Those who were computer-savvy managed to do it but there were some who took time.”
Now, officials were able to understand the complex three-stage filling process. “It seemed there was a sudden change of heart, officers became sympathetic to something they were refusing to acknowledge for months despite complaints”, revenue officer said.
The new initiative has been taken by the revenue department and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). But before the officials submitted the filling form, the outcomes of an internal survey was not positive.
Small business enterprises (SMEs) are struggling with the implementation of GST, they are complaining that the new indirect tax regime has started a split between father, son, and brother – one is handling business and the other is handling compliances. The main problem they are facing in filing returns to provide detailed returns of invoices of every month and then compare the invoices uploaded by the sellers before the submission and payment of final tax returns.
The GST Council consisting state finance ministers and chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has permitted large businesses (annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crores ) to file quarterly returns instead of monthly. A panel of state finance ministers has suggested that new changes made by the GST Council should be applied even on small companies.
Officials said that the Government continuously working upon to improve the functioning system of the GST Network, the portal can be used for filing returns, registering business entities and the payment of taxes. Several technical issues have been found by the government in filing returns and Infosys is handling the GSTN project, has been informed to fix the issues as soon as possible.