The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its upcoming meeting on July 11, will likely discuss additional measures to curb tax evasion, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chairman Vivek Johri said on Friday. “We are thinking of some other measures (to plug evasion) and we will take them through the due process of the law committee and GST Council,” Johri said.
Among the limited agenda for the GST Council’s 50th meeting in New Delhi, the focus would be on the long-pending issue of taxation of online gaming and a proposed reduction of the GST rate on millet-based health products.
The council will discuss both the reports of the group of ministers (GoM) on casinos, racecourses and online gaming and whether to go for a 28% GST rate on the full value including prize money, both for skilled and unskilled games, from 18% only on platform fee now.
With rationalisation out of the agenda till the general elections next year, the the council would focus on anti-evasion measures to improve tax collections.
The GST officers recently carried out a two-month special drive against fake registration. During the drive, 60,000 entities have been identified for physical verification of premises as these could be having fake registration.
“We have completed 43,000 verifications, of which 10,000 have been found to be bogus, involving fake ITC claims of Rs 15,000 crore,” Johri said.
He also said that India and the US are working to conclude the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) to expedite customs clearances for business of both countries.
Johri said the Customs authorities of India and the US had discussions to recognise the authorised economic operators (AEOs) of both countries and give reciprocal benefits.
As part of the agreement, Customs authorities of one country visit the other and evaluate their AEO programme, and make sure that the features that are there for accrediting an entity as an AEO are strong enough to make the entity risk-free.
“That evaluation has already been done, and the language and the text of the agreement have also been worked out. Now it is going through vetting, so we will try and conclude it quickly,” Johri said.
The US was India’s biggest trading partner and bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $128.8 billion in FY23.
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