As much as Rs 65,000 crore out of the nearly Rs 95,000 crore tax collections in July — the first month of GST — have been claimed as transitional credit by taxpayers, prompting the apex indirect taxes body the Central Board of Excise and Customs to order a scrutiny of all cases above Rs 1 crore.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, which kicked in from July 1, allows tax credit on stock purchased during the previous tax regime. This facility is available only up to six months from the date of GST rollout.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the body which deals with formulation and implementation of policy concerning the levy and collection of indirect taxes, in a letter dated September 11 has asked tax officials to verify GST transitional credit claims of over Rs 1 crore. In the transitional credit form TRAN-1 filed by taxpayers along with their maiden returns for July, businesses have claimed a credit of over Rs 65,000 crore for excise, service tax or VAT paid before the GST was implemented from July 1.
In light of such huge claims, CBEC Member Mahender Singh in a letter to chief commissioners said that as per the GST law, carry forward of transitional credit is permitted only when such credit is permissible under the law.
"The possibility of claiming ineligible credit due to mistake or confusion cannot be ruled out... It is desired that the claims of ITC (input tax credit) of more than Rs 1 crore may be verified in a time-bound manner," the CBEC emphasised. It asked the chief commissioners to send a report to the CBEC by September 20 on the claims made by these companies.
To ensure only eligible credit is carried forward in the GST regime, the CBEC has asked field offices to match the credit claimed with closing balance in returns filed under the earlier law. They are also required to check if the credit is eligible under the GST laws. Till last week, as many as 70% of 59.57 lakh taxpayers had filed returns for July, amounting to maiden revenue of Rs 95,000 crore under the GST regime.
However, out of this, the input tax credit (ITC) data for Central GST (CGST) claimed in TRAN-1 has shown that registered businesses have claimed over Rs 65,000 crore as transitional credit. The government, in late August, had come out with form TRAN-1for businesses to claim credit for taxes paid on transition stock.
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