Comptroller and Auditor General of India (“CAG”) releases report on Goods and Services Tax (GST) vide Report No. 11 of 2019, prepared on the basis of audits conducted during the Financial Year 2017-18. The magnitude of the tax reform that GST has been, cannot be over-stated. Elsewhere in the Report it has been noted that the efforts of all the stakeholders, including the businesses, in transiting to this system are appreciable. That there would be teething problems in such a major transition is also not unexpected. The issues that remain, and that have been pointed out in the report, should not therefore be seen by the stakeholders as a fault-finding exercise.
The gaps/shortcomings have been pointed out in the spirit of constructive suggestions to realise the full potential of this major reform. Issues raised in the report are consistent with the spirit of the reform itself to relieve the consumer from the burden of cascading taxes; to make the system as fool-proof as possible; to provide the taxpayers an IT-based system that would ease compliance burden, and add to the ease of doing business; and in this context, to reduce the tax official-assessee interface to the very minimal.
Some of the highlights of the CAG Report on GST for the year ending March 2018 are as under:
Chapter I: Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST)
An overview of the features of the GST including GST returns mechanism and the status of implementation of GST.
Chapter II: Revenue and return filing trends
The analysis of GST revenue of the Government of India, accounting of IGST and the return filing trends.
Chapter III: IT audit of GSTN
The results of our IT Audit of GSTN covering Registration and Payment modules and IGST settlement reports.
Chapter IV: Compliance audit of GST
The results of Compliance audit of GST covering transitional credits, registrations and refunds.
The Complete CAG report can be accessed at: http://www.a2ztaxcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GST-Audit-Report-by-CAG.pdf