Mop-up stands at Rs 82,000 cr; filing of sales return form 3B simplified
Mumbai : Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections has slipped yet again in January 2018 after showing signs of a revival in December in what could further queer the pitch for the Centre to keep up with the budgeted fiscal math for FY18.
GST collections stood at around Rs 82,000 crore till January, a sharp decline from the December revenue mop up of over Rs 86,000 crore.
As many as 55 lakh GST returns have been filed for the month of January so far, said GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Wednesday.
GST collections were showing a sign of decline since its inception in July 2017. However, GST receipts showed a revival in December 2017.
As per official data available, in December 56.30 lakh GSTR-3B were filed which fetched Rs 86,703 crore revenue to the exchequer, while in November 53.06 lakh returns were filed with total revenue of Rs 80,808 crore.
Pandey, however, expects the number to go up when the government releases the GST collection figure later in the month as more businesses continue to file returns.
In October 50.1 lakh 3B returns were filed with revenue of Rs 83,346 crore, while in September it was 42.91 lakh with tax collection of Rs 92,150 crore.
Meanwhile, the GST Network has simplified filing of sales return form 3B whereby businesses will now be able to see input tax credit balance on the return forms, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The GSTN, in a statement, said that all information required have been placed at one place for the taxpayer filing the return.
The current balance of ITC and cash registers are shown on the top of the screen, below which tax head-wise liability, suggested best way to utilize ITC and the balance amount to be paid in cash are shown in a single view of a table.
The suggested ITC utilisation can be edited by the taxpayer. Once ITC utilisation is changed, the amount required to be paid automatically gets changed,” it said. Besides, changes have been made in the way challan is to be prepared for making payment in cash. Earlier, the challan had to be manually filled with the amount to be paid in cash.
“Now the challan gets prepared with cash amount required to be paid after taking into account the balance available in cash ledger and suggested utilisation of ITC in the table, with a click of a button,” GSTN said.
The last date for filing initial GSTR-3B returns for a month is the 20th of the subsequent month. Hence, the sales returns for January has to be filed by February 20. However, businesses can continue to file returns after payment of late fee.
