In a bid to tackle fraudulent transitional credit claims, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has decided to verify the claims made by 50,000 taxpayers in their TRAN-1 return.
“The verification has to be conducted in respect of the list of top 50,000 GSTINs in the order of transitional credit availed. Five sets of data have been generated in this regard have been uploaded on Antarang for ease of reference,” CBEC Chief Vanaja N Sarna said.
The verification of “unreasonable” transitional credit claims would be conducted in four phases, a source said, adding that credit verification will remain one of the focus areas in 2018-19.
A communication issued by the CBEC Chairperson on Wednesday said that tax officers will verify transitional credit claims where the growth is more than 25 percent or the credit availed is in excess of Rs 25 lakh in the first phase.
This verification is to be completed by June and a status report has to be given to the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) by July 10.
One-third of the remaining claims of 50,000 taxpayers will be verified in three phases — July-September, October-December, and January-March (2019).
As part of the transition to GST last July, taxpayers were allowed to file Form TRAN-1 and avail tax credit on the basis of the closing balance of the credit declared in the last return under the pre-Goods and Services Tax regime.
The communication further said that efforts should be made on the basis of data already available with the department without contacting the taxpayer.
Reportedly, the CBEC advised the officers to take caution wherever contact with taxpayers is absolutely essential. “Summon should be issued only where the taxpayer is not sharing information even after repeated requests and lapse of an unreasonable period of time,” it said.
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