The GST Law Advisory Committee has recommended some more changes in the GST Act which is expected to ensure its ease of compliance and bring more relief to the traders’ community.
The committee has submitted its report to Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia. The recommendations, more than 100, include making the refund process automated and one consolidated return in place of many types of return.
A member of the panel, Praveen Khandelwal, said the committee has suggested abolition of reverse charge mechanism and deferment of e-way bill till 2019. The panel wants an alternative method in place of e-way bill. The GST Council, in its meeting on 6 October, had decided that e-way bill system would be introduced in a staggered manger from 1 January 2018 and would be rolled out nationally from 1 April. The panel also wants that inter-state transactions be allowed in the composition scheme.
The panel was set up by the Finance Ministry and was asked to submit its report by 30 November on the proposed changes in the GST Act. The panel, chaired by Gautam Ray, has Praveen Khandewla, Arghys Sengupta, Ajay Sahai, Om Prakash Mittal and Vinod Jain as members. Sources said the report of the committee will now be examined in the next meeting of the GST Council which is likely to take place in January.
Talking about the return process, Khandelwal said it is complex and, therefore, it should be simplified and rationalised. Moreover, the return should be filed quarterly but the tax may be paid on monthly basis, he added.
Classification of items should be such that the raw material and finished products are in the same slab. This would make refunds faster, the panel has recommended. Search or raid should be conducted only if the authority is having credible evidence against a person and that too only after orders of the commissioner, it says.
The recommendations are based on more than 700 representations, received by the panel, on problems faced by the industry over return filing, the e-way bill, input tax credit, and exports.