MM TAX CLUB

Gross GST collection crosses ₹1.60 lakh crore mark for the sixth time in FY 2023-24

GST collection higher by 11.9% Y-o-Y for FY2023-24 upto November, 2023

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November, 2023 is ₹1,67,929 crore out of which CGST is ₹30,420 crore, SGST is ₹38,226 crore, IGST is ₹87,009 crore (including ₹39,198 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is ₹12,274 crore (including ₹ 1,036 crore collected on import of goods).

The government has settled ₹37,878 crore to CGST and ₹31,557 crore to SGST from IGST. The total revenue of Centre and the States in the month of November, 2023 after regular settlement is ₹68,297 crore for CGST and ₹69,783 crore for the SGST.

The revenues for the month of November, 2023 are 15% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year and highest for any month year-on-year during 2023-24, upto November 2023. During the month, the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) are 20% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. It is for the sixth time that the gross GST collection has crossed ₹1.60 lakh crore mark in FY 2023-24.The gross GST collection for the FY 2023-24 ending November, 2023 [₹13,32,440 crore, averaging ₹1.66 lakh per month] is 11.9 % higher than the gross GST collection for the FY 2022-23 ending November, 2022 [₹11,90,920 crore, averaging ₹1.49 lakh crore per month].

The chart below shows trends in monthly gross GST revenues during the current year. Table-1 shows the state-wise figures of GST collected in each State during the month of November 2023 as compared to November 2022. Table-2 shows the state-wise figures of post settlement GST revenue of each State till the month of November 2023.

Question 1:
I filed my Original ITR u/s 139(1) on 30th July 2023 but not yet verified. Can I Discard it?

Response:
Yes, user can avail the option of “Discard” for the ITRs being filed u/s 139(1) /139(4) / 139(5) if they do
not want to verify it. User is provided a facility to file an ITR afresh after discarding the previous 
unverified ITR. However, if the “ITR filed u/s 139(1)” is Discarded and the subsequent return is filed after 
the due date u/s 139(1), it would attract implications of belated return like 234F etc., Thus, it is advised to 
check whether the due date for filing the return u/s 139(1) is available or not before discarding any 
previously filed return.

Question 2:
I Discard my ITR by-mistake. Is it possible to reverse it?
Response:
No, if ITR is Discarded once, it can’t be reversed. Please be vigilant while availing Discarding option. If an 
ITR is Discarded, it means that, such ITR is not filed at all.

Question 3:
Where can I find “Discard option” ?
Response:
User can find Discard option in below path : 
www.incometax.gov.in → Login → e-File → Income Tax Return → e-Verify ITR → “Discard”

Question 4:
Is it mandatory to file subsequent ITR if I “Discarded” my previous unverified ITR ?
Response:

1.   Amnesty for Taxpayers: The GST Council, in its 52nd meeting, recommended granting amnesty to taxpayers who could not file an appeal under section 107 of the CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax) Act, 2017, against the demand order under section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act, 2017, passed on or before March 31, 2023, or whose appeal against the said order was rejected due to not being filed within the specified time frame in sub-section (1) of section 107.

2.   In compliance with the above GST Council recommendation, the government has issued Notification No. 53/2023 on November 2, 2023.

3.   Taxpayers can now file an appeal in FORM GST APL-01 on the GST portal on or before January 31, 2024, for the order passed by the proper officer on or before March 31, 2023. It is further advised that the taxpayers should make payments for entertaining the appeal by the Appellate officer as per the provisions of Notification No. 53/2023. The GST Portal allows taxpayers to choose the mode of payment (electronic Credit/Cash ledger), and it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to select the appropriate ledgers and make the correct payments. Further, the office of the Appellate Authority shall check the correctness of the payment before entertaining the appeal and any appeal filed without proper payment may be dealt with as per the legal provisions.

4.   If a taxpayer has already filed an appeal and wants it to be covered by the benefit of the amnesty scheme would need to make differential payments to comply with Notification No. 53/2023. The payment should be made against the demand order using the "Payment towards demand" facility available on the GST portal. The navigation step for making this payment is provided: Login >> Services >> Ledgers >> Payment towards Demand.

The Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, is hosting the APG Annual Typologies Workshop in association with Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and the World Bank from 28th November to 1st December, 2023 in New Delhi.

Yearly typologies workshops are held by the APG to bring together experts and APG delegates to discuss money laundering and terrorist financing trends as well as policy issues emerging from those trends. These workshops have topical 'themes' to provide a focus for the discussion. Twenty-three typologies workshops have been held since the APG's formation in 1997. After 2018, this is the first in-person workshop.  A total of 26 jurisdictions are participating in the workshop.

The workshop began with a welcome address by Shri Vivek Aggarwal, Additional Secretary (Department of Revenue) and Head of the Indian Delegation to Financial Action Task Force (FATF), followed by adoption of yearly typologies report on money laundering (ML), terrorism financing (TF), and proliferation financing (PF) trends. The report features a focus section on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, in recognition of the threat they pose for ML, TF, and PF.

Further, the workshop is divided into three broad streams - Virtual Assets (VA), Illegal Fishing, and Tax Crimes. World Bank is delivering an ML/Tax Crimes Training Exercise and will cover various facets – ‘whole-of-government’ approach in taxing crime, various sources of information, beneficial ownership, tax crimes as predicate offence, international cooperation, organisation of evidence and typologies

The Virtual Assets/Virtual Assets Service Providers Stream will be focusing on the risk assessment, private sector perspective through VASPs participation, terrorism financing and proliferation financing through VA, law enforcement case studies, etc.

The illicit financial flows from illegal fishing pose a complex challenge for law enforcement.  A lack of understanding of the transnational nature of this crime; weak international coordination on illegal proceeds of illegal fishing; and absence of parallel financial investigations, result in negligence ML or parallel financial investigations on this predicate offence. The APG adopted an Issues Paper on illegal fishing which will form the basis of discussions during the workshop.

APG is one of the Financial Action Task Force-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) and is the largest with 42 members in terms of membership numbers and geographical size. The APG also has a large number of observers (both jurisdictions and supporting organisations) that participate in its programmes and activities. Some of the key international organisations that support the APG include the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, OECD, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the UN's Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate, Asian Development Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, INTERPOL and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

The Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, chaired a meeting in New Delhi, today, to discuss issues related to cyber security in the financial services sector and increasing incidents of recent online financial frauds.

The meeting was also attended by Secretary, Telecom and senior officials of Department of Financial Services (DFS), Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Department of Revenue (DoR), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Department of Telecom (DoT), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Indian Cyber Crime Co-ordination Center (I4C), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda,  Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank, Airtel Payment Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank, Google Pay India, PayTM, and Razorpay.

The Indian Cyber Crime Co-ordination Center (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs, made a presentation on the latest statistics of digital payment frauds as reported in the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), various sources of these financial frauds, modus operandi adopted by the fraudsters, including challenges faced to counter financial cybercrimes. Further, representatives from State Bank of India (SBI) made a brief presentation on the Proactive Risk Monitoring (PRM) strategy implemented by SBI. Besides, PayTM and Razorpay representatives also shared their best practices which has enabled them to mitigate such frauds.

The meeting took stock of the preparedness of the banks and other financial institutions in tackling the challenges arising from cyber security in the financial services sector, increasing trend of digital payment frauds, and deliberated on a focused approach to mitigate such cyber-attacks and frauds. It was noted during the deliberation that:

• 70 lakh mobile connections involved in cybercrime/ financial frauds reported through digital intelligence platforms have been disconnected so far.
• Rs. 900 crore defrauded money has been saved, benefitting 3.5 lakh victims

Some of the issues that were discussed included:

• Renewed focus on facilitating seamless coordination between Police, Banks and Financial Entities for real time tracking and blocking of defrauded money
• Bringing all financial institutions including NBFCs and major cooperative banks on ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS)’ platform, wherein 259 financial intermediaries are already onboarded
• Strategy to tackle menace of mule accounts by banks
• Banks to improve the response time in handling the alerts on online financial frauds received from different agencies
• Appointment of regional/ state level nodal officers by the banks and financial institutions to cater to the requirements of law enforcement agencies
• Maintaining a central registry of onboarding of merchants and standardisation of KYC
• Whitelisting of digital lending apps through consultation with relevant stakeholders
• Status on implementation of recommendations of the Digital Lending Working Group including setting up of Digital India Trust Agency (DIGITA) and bringing a new legislation ‘Banning of Unregulated Lending Activities (BULA) Act’
• All stakeholders including banks and financial institutions to undertake more customer awareness and sensitisation programmes on digital payments security