Mandatory 1% Cash Payment of GST Liability will Reduce Fake Invoicing & Tax Evasion

To curb the menace of fake invoicing, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has amended the GST rule. According to the new GST amendment, the taxpayers now will be required to pay 1% of GST liability in cash with effect from January 1, 2021.

This rule applies to registered taxpayers whose taxable income, other than exempt supply and export is more than Rs 50 lakh, monthly or the annual turnover is more than 6 crore. The rule, however, is not applicable in the cases where the registered person has deposited income tax more than Rs 1 Lakh in each of the last two years.

Also, the registered users who have received a fund of more than Rs 1 Lakh in the preceding FY on account of the export or inverted tax structure, are out of the purview of this rule. If the registered person belongs to a government body, PSU, from a local authority or any statutory body the rule will not apply to him/her. Small businesses including MSMEs and composition dealers are also exempted from the new rule.

Registered users who have paid output tax through cash over 1% of the total output tax liability, will be exempted from paying 1% of GST liability in cash. The mandatory requirement of 1% cash payment of GST liability will be applied to about 45,000 taxpayers, which only constitutes 0.37% of the total businesses registered in the Goods & Services Tax System.

The provision is meant to bring fraudsters or suspicious dealers who use a lot of fake credit to evade tax and make no cash payment under control. It would neither affect any genuine business dealer nor it will affect ‘ease of doing business’ in any manner. The new rule also restricts the use of Input Tax Credit for discharging GST liability to 99 percent.