Newsletter

CBDT issues Circular No 8/2018 in respect of the Explanatory Notes to the provisions of the Finance Act, 2018.

CBIC releases Third edition of FAQs on GST on 15 December 2018.  It contains more than 1000 question with its solutions.

The changes announced in GST Council Meeting held on 22nd December'2018 would be incorporated and the updated edition of the same will be uploaded shortly.

CBIC further issues updated SOP on TDS under GST as well as FAQs on Financial Services Sector.

The 31st GST Council Meeting was held on 22nd December 2018 in New Delhi. The recommendations as made by the GST Council have been made public vide Press release dated 22nd December 2018 issued by Ministry of Finance. The Council in its 31st meeting made following recommendations:

• Reduction in GST rates on various goods and services;
• Recommended proportion of gross value of EPC contract for construction of solar power generating plants and other renewal energy plants to be construed as goods and service portion.
• Extension of due date of filing annual returns, GST audit and filing of reconciliation statement to 30th June 2019 for Financial Year 2017-18 and further provides clarificatory changes in annual return and reconciliation statement;
• ITC in relation to invoices pertaining to F.Y. 2017-18 may be availed till the due date of for furnishing GSTR 3B for the month of March, 2018;
  Restriction on generation of E-way Bill in case returns are not filed for two consecutive tax period;
• Introduction of New return filing system on trial basis from 01st April 2019 and on mandatory basis from 1st July 2019;
• Waiver of late fee for all taxpayer if returns furnished between 22nd December 2018 to 31st March 2019;
• There would be a single cash ledger for each tax head;
• Scheme of single authority for disbursement of refund amount sanctioned by either Centre or State tax authorities would be implemented on pilot basis;
• Extension in due date of filing return form ITC-04 for the period July 2017 to December 2018 shall be extended till 31 March 2019;
• Amendments in GST Acts for creation of Centralized Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR);
• Amendments in Section 50 of CGST Act to provide that interest shall be charged only on the net tax liability of the taxpayer;
• 01 February 2019 appointed as effective date for changes made by CGST (Amendment) Act, 2018, IGST (Amendment) Act, 2018, UTGST (Amendment) Act, 2018 and GST (Compensation to States) Amendment Act, 2018 and the corresponding changes in SGST Acts

DGPT issues a Trade Notice providing clarification on requirement of documents for the purpose of IEC registration. Amongst others, it clarfies on who has to apply for registration, changing of mobile no and email id, list of documents that qualify as address proof etc. 

In continuation to the Press Release issued on 07 December 2018, the Government has issued an Order extending the deadlines for filing GST Annual returns July 17 to March 18 period to 31 March 2019. Suitable Explanation has been inserted to Section 44 of the CGST Act 2017. 

They have also mentioned the electronic facility for filing the annual return is likely to be operational and made available to the assessees by 31 January 2019.

CBDT clarifies that no appeal / SLP shall be filed in cases where tax effect does not exceed the monetary limits specified in Para 3 of Circular No 3/2018 dated 11 July 2018. Further, appeal should not be filed merely because the tax effect exceeds the monetary limits but appeals should be contested on merits. 

It re-iterates the intent of the said Circular to avoid mechanical filing of appeals and provides specific scenarios in which appeal shall be filed on merits, notwithstanding the fact the tax effects in such cases could be lower than the monetary limits.

CBDT gas clarifies that no TDS deduction u/s. 194A shall be required to be made in case of senior citizens, if the amount of income or aggregate amount of income credited or paid does not exceed Rs. 50,000 during the financial year

It further authorised DGIT (Systems) to specify the procedure, format and standards for the purpose of furnishing and verification  of claim for refund u/s 26B as well as for the day to day administrative in this respect.

CBIC has extended the due date for GST Annual Returns (GSTR-9, GSTR-9A) and GST Audit (GSTR-9C) till 31 March 2019. It has also clarfied that relevant forms shall be made available on GSTN Portal shortly - Press Release dated 07 December 2018.

In continuation to the FAQ issued by the government on various issues pertaining to TDS / TCS provisions under GST, an updated FAQ pertaining to TCS provisions has now been released.

The additional clarifications have been highlighted by CBIC for ease of reference

The CBIC has extended the due date for filing of GSTR-7 (Return for registered persons requiring to deduct tax at source) for the months of October 2018 to December 2018 till 31 January 2019 vide Notification No 66/2018 - Central Tax dated 29 November 2018.