Despite the economic slowdown, there has been a tremendous increase in GST returns in the month of November. According to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), GSTR 3B filing has increased by 50 percent in the month of November as compared to October. It is a matter of relief that this year the GST collection has been less than the target.
This is good news for the government amidst all the negative news coming on the economy front. A total of 18.27 lakh GST returns have been filed in November, compared to 12.20 lakh returns in October. GST return has increased by 9.4 percent compared to November last year.
The CBIC said in its statement, "The return filing data shows that there has been a substantial improvement in tax compliance by taxpayers". The CBIC says that the GSTN return filing system is working properly as expected.
Possible Reasons
Experts say that this indicates that there is some relief in the economy, although higher GST returns may also be due to the festive season ended in October.
Significantly, recently it was reported that the central government is now in a mood to take strict action against those who do not file Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns. A plan is being made that the registration of the person who will miss filling returns twice in a row will be canceled.
After the GST collection fell below expectations in the last few months of the current financial year, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has directed strict handling of those not filing returns from zonal offices. In a video conferencing of the Principal Chief Commissioners and Chief Commissioners of GST and Customs on 13 November, the CBIC chief expressed his displeasure over the process of canceling the registration of those institutions which have given GSTR-3B returns, six times or more than six times.
GST Collection
According to the data released earlier, the GST collection fell to Rs 95,380 crore in October, compared to Rs 1,00,710 crore in October last year. This is the third consecutive month when the GST recovery is below Rs 1 lakh crore. The GST collection in September was Rs 91,916 crore.
