Facing a ₹1 trillion revenue shortfall, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is pulling out all stops to try and shore up revenue collections in the last fortnight of the fiscal.
CBIC has told staff to postpone any leave plans and to make themselves available for meeting the challenges of revenue collections as the financial year comes to an end.
CBIC last week held a meeting of its members and senior field officers on ways to improve tax receipts and has now asked officers to nudge businesses to ensure they file their goods and services tax (GST) returns by the due date in March and to pay taxes on time, said a person informed about the development.
With restrictions on use of tax credits and a campaign against fake invoices, CBIC is hoping to achieve buoyancy in revenue receipts in an exceptional year of economic contraction.
CBIC on Monday informed field officials that a gentle nudge to taxpayers to file returns will add impetus to revenue collection, the person said.
The focus is on sensitizing businesses of their tax return filing and payment obligations, get pending tax assessments completed and ensure importers pay duty and clear goods that are assessed. Officials have also been told to levy interest on late payment wherever applicable, said a second person, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials have been told to contact businesses whose tax payments are sharply lower this year than last year’s and find out the reason. Stronger action is being taken in terms of issuing tax demands where mismatches have been noticed between different return forms on the sales made. The approach is also the same where there are mismatches between tax credits claimed and what is automatically generated in a tax credit statement as eligible tax credit.