There is no paucity of funds in the government exchequer although it cannot be denied that government has to bear expenditure on welfare and growth and development activities in addition to meeting expenses of the state machinery of Judiciary, Executive and Legislative. This fact mirrored in an RTI filed at the CGST & Central Excise Ranchi Commissionerate based at Ranchi.
The CGST & Central Excise Ranchi Commissionerate in an RTI filed by an individual disclosed that The government exchequer has collected Rs 1,07,02,47,136/- towards late fee in filing GSTR 3B and other GST Returns in the last two years although no information is available on the volume of applicants who paid late fees.
The aforesaid RTI was filed by Mr Pallav Parashar at the CGST & Central Excise Ranchi Commissionerate, wherein he sought the above-mentioned details for the dates between 01.07.2017 to 30.04.2021.
In response to the above-mentioned RTI filed at CGST & Central Excise Ranchi Commissionerate, based at Ranchi, the following response was disclosed:
“Late Fee Collected by the Govt. on GSTR 3B and other GST returns for the period starting from 01.07.2017 to 30.04.2021 — 01.07.2017 to 31.03.2019 – Data not as a liable. 01.04.2019 to 30.04.2021 – Rs. 1,07,02,47,136/-.”
It is worthwhile mentioning here that the aforesaid RTI also requested for the disclosure of information related to the amount of tax and penalty collected by the Govt. under Section 16(4) of the CGST Act for the period from 01.07.2017 to 30.04.2021, However, the department responded that no such specific information is available.
