GST Circulars Incongruous with Ease of Doing Business – CAAS

We, at Chartered Accountants Association Surat (CAAS), the body representing Chartered Accountants and Tax Practitioners, their staff members and businesses (hereinafter referred to as “Stakeholders”), are appealing for your attention regarding incongruous circulars about GST registration, which are currently hampering the economic growth of India. Do have a patience reading to find out what is causing this.

India has entered a post-COVID growth era, ushered in by amendment to Rule 9 and 25 of the CGST Rules 2017, which allows for GST Registrations to be fast tracked through Aadhar authentication as of 21st August 2020.

Initially, stakeholders were pleased with the ease of doing business, but their satisfaction soon faded. While many commencements and new businesses intended to get under the GST tax net. Despite a conviction to comply with the GST Law, the brazen approach of GST Officials from various stiff circulars and orders leave these entrepreneurs in a retreated state.

There is one such bottleneck document, Instruction No.4/3/2020 dt. 27th November 2020 laying the SOPs for verification of new GST Registrants, which has the primary purpose of preventing false invoices.

A closer look at the below included Questionnaire of Absurdness shows just how absurd this instruction is, which fails to meet its intended objective and works more to make the ailment worse than the remedy.

For Example :

1. Connection to electricity, bills paid during the applicable period?

What If.? Not complied

An electricity bill isn’t the best criterion for proving the validity of a business. During pandemics and even afterwards, various businesses are trying their best to juggle cash flow, taking full advantage of credit and paying on time.

Although such things are lethargic and indisciplined, they cannot serve as the basis for judging a business.

Can a GST official reject such a registration simply because an applicant did not pay the electricity bill?

Does it help in countering bogus billing.?

No.

Fake billers rent buildings where the electricity bills are already paid.

To Read Full Representation Download PDF Given Below.