Relevant Extracts | Finance Minister’s Budget Speech 2021 

Finance Bill
2021
1
Finance Minister’s Budget Speech 2021
(Relevant Extracts)

GST
174. Before I come to my Indirect Tax proposals, I would like to appraise the House on GST. The GST is now four years old, and we have taken several measures to further simplify it. Some of the measures include:

1. 1. nil return through SMS,
   2. quarterly return and monthly payment for small taxpayers,
   3. electronic invoice system,
   4. validated input tax statement,
   5. pre-filled editable GST return, and
   6. staggering of returns filing.

The capacity of GSTN system has also been enhanced. We have also deployed deep analytics and Artificial Intelligence to identify tax evaders and fake billers and launched special drives against them.
175. The results speak for themselves. We have made record collections in the last few months.
176. The GST Council has painstakingly thrashed out thorny issues. As Chairperson of the Council, I want to assure the House that we shall take every possible measure to smoothen the GST further, and remove anomalies such as the inverted duty structure.

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G. Legislative Changes in the provisions of Central GST Act, 2017 (CGST Act) and Integrated GST Act, 2017 (IGST Act):
Certain changes have been in the CGST Act and the IGST Act on the basis of recommendations made by the GST Council. These changes will come into effect from the date when the same will be notified, as far as possible, concurrently with the corresponding amendments to the similar Acts passed by the States & Union territories with legislature.

These includes measures for

1. 1. facilitating taxpayers, such as remove the mandatory requirement of getting annual accounts audited and reconciliation statement, filing of the annual return on self-certification basis and charging interest on net cash liability with effect from the 1st July, 2017.
   2. improving compliance, such as availment of input tax credit only when the details have been furnished by the supplier in the statement of outward supplies, validity of provisional attachment for a period, zero-rating on payment of IGST only in specified cases and linking it to the receipt of foreign remittances.
   3. making certain other changes relating to seizure and confiscation, filing of appeal only on payment of a sum equal to twenty-five per cent of penalty imposed.

H. There are few other changes of minor nature. For details of the budget proposals, the Explanatory Memorandum and other relevant budget documents may be referred to.