In the wake of falling GST collection in October, tax authorities are set to tighten the screw on traders and retailers along with ensuring strict enforcement of tax laws by putting in place a localised strategy that will include heightened surveillance, search and raids,
According to the report, the authorities have come across ground reports of tax evasion, especially at B2C (business-to-consumer) level in the GST regime, affecting the tax collections.
This was the reason that on 9th December, Revenue Secretary HasmukhAdhia in an internal day-long meeting of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) field officers reportedly asked them to be tough in ensuring compliance to the new tax regime.
It may be noted that the GST collection in October fell nearly 10 per cent to Rs 83,346 crore from over Rs 92,000 crore in September. In the GST rollout month of July, the total collection was nearly Rs 95,000 crore while in August, the figure was over Rs 91,000 crore.
Since the GST provides for input tax credit in the supply chain, the possibility of manufacturers or processors evading tax is less. The evasion is happening more at the time of final sale of goods and services.Small taxpayers with annual turnover of uptoRs 1.5 crore and controlled by State tax authorities are suspected to be dodging tax payment.
According to the GST Council, states have powers to assess and administer 90 per cent of the tax payers under Rs 1.5 crore annual turnover while the remaining is controlled by the Centre. For tax payers with more than Rs 1.5 crore turnover, states and the Centre have divided them in 50:50 ratio.
The division of taxpayers in each state has been done by computer at the state level based on stratified random sampling taking into account the geographical location and type of taxpayers among others.