Q AND A

Q. The assessee has raised supply invoices in the previous FY 17-18, but his part-time accountant omitted to enter the values/ particulars in GSTR 3B /1. But they have paid the tax due in relation thereto in May 18 in the next FY 18-19. Now one of the buyers is refusing to pay the GST amount since the purchase (assessee’s sale) is not reflected in his GSTR-2A. How can assessee rectify his returns for the FY 17-18 now for including the omitted turnover? Is my understanding that there is no provision in GST for revision of returns? What are the options available to assessee to regularise his GST returns for the FY 17-18 at this point.

A. I have myself uploaded missed invoices for October, 17 and November, 17 (12 invoices) in GSTR-1 return for September, 18 and the common portal system accepted the same. Tax in GSTR-3B was paid correctly. So the system may account for the same in the Financial Year 2017-18. Are all rules in compatibility with the common portal system? The common portal system is still not fool proof. Assessees suffer because of lack of stability in the common portal system. If common portal system allows any facility that must be availed. Please refer to Circular No. 26/26/2017 dated 29.12.2017. This circular clarifies and gives solutions to all such omissions/ mistakes. Show the missed invoices in GSTR-1 of the September 2018 month return. The law allowed to rectify the errors done in FY 2017-18 in the September month's return.

Q. We are the manufacturer of automobile parts and supplying to our OEM customer. We had doubt. We have developed a new supplier outside the state and he supplied the parts. He cleared the goods and book the consignment through transport agency. The consignment receives at the transporter godown. He stocks the consignment at transporter godown and he is delivering the goods as and when required. Whether this is correct or not. The invoice date will be 2 months before but the receipt date will be today from transporter place. GST credit is eligible or not.

A. According to Section 18 (2) of CGST Act, 2017 " A registered person shall not be entitled to take input tax credit under sub-section (1) in respect of any supply of goods or services or both to him after the expiry of one year from the date of issue of tax invoice relating to such supply. " Therefore though the inputs are brought to your business premises even after two months from the date of invoice and the credit is taken by you within one year from the date of invoice the method followed by is legally tenable. You are eligible to take input tax credit.

Q. If an assessee has not filed his GSTR-1 for July 2018. And in this return he has having ITC, reflecting in his GSTR-2A. But no credit is taken in his electronic credit ledger, as he has not filed his return till date. This ITC is on B2B invoices which are fake. What would be the consequence? As per CGST Act, to avail ITC, filing of return is mandatory. If one has not filed his return, department cannot charge for his for fake ITC. The assessee has not filed GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B for July 18. This amount of fake ITC is reflecting in his GSTR-2A. Is there any escape, as department has temporarily postponed the rectification/ amendment in GSTR-2.

A. You are not to worry at all. Your record is neat and clean in Electronic Credit Ledger. GSTR-2A is auto populated. Such offence may be on the part of your supplier & not on you. The words, "Auto Populated" saves you. You are not responsible for auto-populated entries. You have neither taken nor used ITC. What is the basis of your fear? I shall call it phobia of the department. If you are still under tension, write a letter to your jurisdictional Range Officer with a copy of GSTR-2A. GSTR-2A is uploaded by the supplier. So when you have neither availed nor utilised ITC on fake invoice, how can you be held responsible? Or inform the Vendor who has uploaded the invoice mistakenly in your name. Inform him to rectify the said invoice by amending the GSTR-1 before 10.10.2018 so that the eligible person (The correct person in whose GSTR-2A the invoice should have appeared) will get the Input tax credit. You will be able to save some else eligible ITC (If any). The due date of GSTR-1 of September 2018 month is 25.10.2018. Hence, the person who has uploaded the sales can do the correction before the said last date. The person uploading the sales is responsible to upload the sales with correct amount and GSTIN.

Q. We have purchased/ booked a residential flat which was under construction say for 20 Lacs prior to GST. We also paid 5,00,000 lacs prior to GST along with service tax and vat amounts. Now, the balance amount of 15,00,000 will have to be paid under GST regime. So the query is what would be the rate of GST on under construction residential flats.

A. Rate of GST is 12% (after deemed deduction of 6% which is 1/3 of actual rate of 18%).

Q AND A

PORTAL PROBLEMS FOR TAXPAYERS/TAX CONSULTANTS

GST being a totally online based taxation. GST Portal is the real Backbone of GSTIN. It is the real time interface for Government officers, Tax consultant and Tax payers. Enough has been discussed about problems with GST Portal at every level. Unfortunately, even after 16 months, portal is not stabilized and is turning into a difficulties for Tax payers and Tax consultant. Currently, while checking portal for compliance and matching of data for Year 2017-18, we are still facing the following major issues which need to be resolved on a war footing :

i) GST Matching (GSTR -1 and GSTR-2 A)  : More than 1000 grievance tickets have been logged since October 2017 (Nearly one year) that mapping of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2A is incorrect on portal. E.g. Supplier (A) has filed his GSTR-1 for July 2017 in time. But Receiver of goods/Customer (B) is not able to take credit as “NO” is displayed against Supplier (A) in GSTR-2A of B. Complete ITC data is to be auto populated in yearly return and B cannot take ITC because of Portal mistake / mapping. First grievance was logged on 14.10.2017 and tickets are closed citing irrelevant explanations.

ii) Non Display of Input Tax Credit in Electronic Credit Ledger  : Registered Person (RP) has filed all his returns for 9 months of 2017-18. But while downloading Electronic Credit ledger from portal, one month ITC is not displayed. This mean, he is deprived of his Tax credit for that month. No answer from GST IT team.

iii) Data in different TAB’s in GSTR -3 B are blank when downloaded from Portal   :       RP has uploaded GSTR-3 B for 9 months with relevant data. To reconcile the data when RP is downloading GSTR-3B from portal, in some returns TAB 3.1(Details of Outward supplies) and TAB 4 (Eligible ITC) are blank. In other return/s, TAB 6 (Payment of TAX) is blank. How can he reconcile the data?

iv) Data on GSTR - 2A (Portal) and Data on Excel Download sheet does not match  : Different data is displayed on GSTR-2A and Excel sheet (GSTR-2 A). RP are not able to decide which data is correct and how to proceed.

v) SCALABILITY of SERVER/NO RESPONSE at PEAK HOUR  : It is ridiculous that in 16 months, GST IT Service provider could not assess the load on GST Portal. For first year, we agreed with government that during Peak hour, load is huge and GST IT team need time to set right scalability problem. But after 15 months it is real shame for IT team. Mirror servers/Additional Servers/ Additional IT Infrastructure is needed on top priority in next 15 days.

vi) Online GSTR Yearly Return Forms (GSTR-9, 9A, 9C) not available on portal : On one side last date to claim ITC for Year 2017-18 is 25.10.2018 (Sep 2018 Return last date). On other side, yearly returns are not uploaded on Portal. We have seen that there are few changes/alteration in physical form (as issued by GST council) and online form. There are some interface changes which RP need to understand before filing relevant. We request for immediate upload of yearly return forms.

vii) Other Portal Related Issues : “Data mismatch”/“Data not showed”/“Irrelevant data Display”/ irregular behaviour of Portal at some time in any TAB, are few issues which cannot be categorized.