Easier GST refunds, credits likely soon

Business-friendly move may ease working capital pressures

- Gireesh Chandra Prasad

After the recent tax rate cuts, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, the apex decision-making committee on indirect taxes, next plans to make availing of tax credits and claiming tax refunds easier by potentially eliminating data mismatches, according to two persons aware of discussions in the government.

It also plans to put an end to tax notices that get issued for information mismatches that do not suggest tax evasion.

If carried through, the changes could ease the working capital requirements of businesses by releasing locked tax credits.

The idea is to make the technology-driven tax system that collects data at every stage in the value chain and enables flow of tax credits from business to business more user-friendly than tax administration-friendly.

As part of this, rules and GST filing forms will be reworked for an easier flow of tax credits across businesses. For instance, populating data in different forms and their updation or correction which face technical difficulties will be streamlined, one of the persons said.

Queries emailed to the finance ministry on 26 September seeking comments remained unanswered.