In response to the Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia’s written concern over the poor performance of the central tax officials when compared to their state tax counterparts, the zones under the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) in a letter to the board stressed that the GST Network does not provide separate data on tax compliance for the Centre and State. Neither does the GST Network separately highlights the total tax proceeds of the central and state. In such a case it would be hard to draw a proper insight and analysis of the performance of the central GST officials. Another key point that central GST officials believe hampered their overall performance is:
- Data Discrepancies between GSTN and the system of the Central GST officials.
Moreover, as per the Bhopal Zone GST Officials, the GSTN data does not have separate fields for non-compliant taxpayers differentiated by tax administrations. These drawbacks have been highlighted by central tax officials from other central zones as well.
Central tax officials have also suggested for API details of all applications on the GST Network. The reason for this being non-availability of certain tools used by the state officials. State officials have access to certain tools that the Central officials cannot use. API details will provide for easy and detailed monitoring of the GSTN data.
In addition to accessibility, another reason for the lagging performance has been that taxpayers who have cancelled GST registration still remain a part of the central database. The reason being the time-consuming practice of ensuring zero tax liabilities for such taxpayers before approving complete deletion from the database. This is not practised by the states. They need not scrutinize cancellation application and accordingly record better return filing percentage. Hence, the large number of taxpayers who have cancelled GST registration still reflected in the systems of the central GST officials. This creates discrepancies.
A letter from one of the Zones to Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) also highlights the Center’s refrain from giving due credit the central officials efforts in curbing tax evasion as well as revenue analysis. These points were not taken into account while performance analysis. Although the officials believe that their efforts helped in generating better tax. “Though the field formations are making all-out efforts in detecting tax evasion and facilitating the taxpayer, these success indicators are not reflected on GSTN. It is felt that GSNT may develop a module which will indicate such efforts by field formations,” it said.
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Reportedly, the first month of the new Financial year had recorded better-than-normal GST collection. But it has remained behind the budget estimates by a considerable margin. While finance budget projected a CGST Revenue of Rs 50,325 core per month, the figures for April will in all likelihood touch Rs 40,800 crore. This is lag of 18% in the first month itself.
