PremiumNEW DELHI : The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is examining more measures to liberalize compliance requirements in customs and GST procedures to boost cross-border trade and to make life easier for businesses.
The measures under review will also seek to leverage technology and widen the tax base. Self-certification and reduction of licence requirements will be a key part of the proposed measures.
The indirect tax authority is currently reviewing two separate sets of recommendations made by internal study groups on customs and GST that examined measures for revenue augmentation and expansion of tax base, while enhancing ease of doing business and further reducing compliance burden, said an official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The effort to cut down procedures further comes after CBIC liberalized the GST annual return filing requirement for businesses from 1 August. As per this, businesses with up to ₹2 crore annual sales in FY21 need not file annual returns for that year and businesses with up to ₹5 crore need not file a separate reconciliation statement in form 9C. Even those with higher sales only need to file a reconciliation statement with self-certification. This statement is for reconciling the value of supplies declared in the return furnished for the financial year, with the audited annual financial statement.
On the customs side, certain class of accredited merchants called authorized economic operators certified from 1 August 2019 will have their certificate auto renewed from this August without an end date.
Experts said there is further scope for lowering compliance burden. “The overall GST procedure is a bit complex as it entails GST filing, e-way bill, e-invoicing and GST reconciliation and the process should be less complicated for the users so that they may face fewer hurdles while fulfilling the requirements. We recommend a transparent and efficient manner for GST filing procedures, said Rajesh Gupta, co-founder and director at BUSY Accounting Software.
One key area where businesses expect further streamlining is the GST return filing process. Taxpayers with ₹5 crore or more sales file two monthly returns regarding transaction summary and sales while smaller firms have the option to file these two returns on a quarterly basis with monthly tax payment obligation. Experts said streamlining it into either monthly or quarterly alone will help in resolving delays in input tax credit availability as all businesses would follow the same return filing cycle.
Many businesses now lose tax credits because crude oil and select petroleum products are outside GST and no cross-utilization of tax credits is available between excise duty and GST. However, to resolve this, these items have to be brought into GST.
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