NVCC an apex trade body informed that the GST Council in its 53rd meeting has provided for GST Amnesty scheme for waiver of interest and penalty for the initial years of GST Implementation i.e. FY 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20. A new section 128A as been inserted in the CGST Act 2017 to give this relief in interest & Penalty for taxpayers. The scheme populates that in case a taxpayer who has a GST demand raised for these initial years has paid 100% tax amount, the corresponding interest & penalty shall get waived in toto.
Now thereafter a FAQ was released by CBIC which has negated this amnesty benefit in many circumstances even when the provision of the law allows the relief. We strongly feel that such a halfheartedly issued FAQ & Circular overrides the power given in the provision of the law.
Gold Rate
11 April 2025
Shri Arjundas Ahuja, President NVCC informed that the tax administrators are wrongly interpreting the FAQ in such a way that the scheme is eligible only for demand where there is mismatch of input tax credit (ITC) while they themselves are not clear about waiver benefit for delayed payment of taxes. Further, the self-declared liability in GST R1 or GST R 9 but the tax discharged late by the taxpayer in GST R 3B also need to be covered for this amnesty scheme however the tax administrators are denying it.
Shri Ritesh Mehta, Chartered Accountant & Indirect Tax committee Convener informed that there are many demands raised by the department for delayed payment interest, late fees, late filing of GST R 1 etc. and such amnesty scheme should cover these demands also. Further in many cases the department has assessed the taxpayer treating it as fraud, misrepresentation etc. covered under Sec. 74 which is not eligible for this scheme however if properly considered these cases doesn’t fall under the category of fraud, misrepresentation etc.
All these denials by the tax administrators are badly impacting the success of this amnesty scheme and very few taxpayers are looking forward to apply for this scheme. The Govt. should issue an appropriate clarification to include all such circumstances eligible for GST Amnesty scheme and then only this scheme will get good response. In the initial year of GST implementation, the law was new and compliance was very cumbersome due to which the taxpayers have made bonafide mistake and this scheme is to give relief to such bonafide mistakes. Narrow interpretation of such welcome scheme would hit the intention of the legislation in bringing such scheme for the benefit of small & medium taxpayers and also to reduce litigation.
