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There has been a substantial increase in the collection of central taxes during the first quarter of FY23. Net direct tax collection jumped to more than ₹3.54 lakh crore, while net indirect tax collection was over ₹3.44 lakh crore during Q1FY23. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Pankaj Chaudhary, the Minister of State in the Finance Ministry said, various factors like rapid economic recovery post covid, better compliances due to various measures taken by the government have contributed to this increase.
In Q1FY23, direct tax collection stood at ₹354,569.74 crore up by 41.32% from ₹250,881.08 crore in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, net indirect tax collection in Q1FY23 came in at ₹344,056 crore increasing by 9.4% from ₹314,476 crore in Q1 last year, as per the minister's data.
Chaudhary said, no tax exemption has been granted to food items during the current financial year.
The minister also revealed steps taken by the GST Council to improve compliance. He said e-invoicing is applicable to all Registered persons having an aggregate turnover of more than ₹20 crore with effect from 1st April 2022 in any of the preceding FY starting from 2017-18.
Other GST measures are - auto-population of distance based on the PIN Code in the e-Waybill; insertion of a new clause allowing the taxpayer to avail the ITC reflected in GSTR-2B only; blocking of e-Way Bill in case of non-filing of GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B for two months or two quarters and non-filing of CMP-08 for two quarters; auto cancellation in case of non-filing of returns for the consecutive periods of six months and revocation of GST Registration on the filing of all these returns; addition of restaurant services and thereby shifting the liability on Ecommerce operator like Swiggy, Zomato, etc. from April 1, 2022; and automatic calculation of interest in the GSTR 3B for the delay in payment of GST liability, among others.
In another reply to Lok Sabha, Chaudhary talked about cryptocurrencies and NFTs. He said, "currently, Cryptocurrencies are unregulated in India. Cryptocurrencies and Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are by definition borderless and require international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage."
"Therefore any legislation for regulation or for banning can be effective only after significant international collaboration on evaluation of the risks and benefits and evolution of common taxonomy and standards," he added.