GST interest to be charged for wrongful ITC availment

The government has notified a host of procedural changes in the GST rules, including levy of interest for wrongful utilisation of ITC and turnover threshold for filing annual returns for the 2021-22 fiscal. The changes were vetted by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council at its meeting last week.

With the amendments notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), businesses have also been allowed to make tax payments on the GSTN portal by using IMPS and UPI payment modes. Businesses with aggregate annual turnover of up to Rs 2 crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2022, are exempt from filing annual returns for 2021-22, as per the amended rules.

The amendment also clarified that interest on incorrect availment of input tax credit (ITC) would only apply in cases where such credit is utilised. The Finance Act had brought in a provision related to levying of interest on ITC wrongly availed and utilised.

GST

The provision would come into effect from July 5 and would apply retrospectively from July 1, 2017, -the date of GST rollout.