Hyderabad, Aug 2 (Representative) GST Tribunal will be a reality by the end of this year, said Sandeep Prakash, Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Tax, Hyderabad Zone, here on Tuesday. Addressing a group of GST Consultants and Corporates at a Seminar on “50th GST Council Recommendations” organised by FTCCI here, Prakash said, “I am confident that by the end of this year, the GST Tribunal will be functional; at least some benches will start functioning, he said. GST is a big boost to cooperative federalism, and it is a comprehensive indirect tax that was designed to bring indirect taxation under one umbrella, he said.When the GST was introduced in 2017 and 2018, the collection was 7.18 lakh crore for the nine-month period. The same in 2022 and 2023 was 18.10 lakh crore. It was 22 percent more than the collection in 2021–2022, the Chief Commissioner said. Initially, it was the target for everyone working in the GST to ensure one lakh cores were collected, but for the past 15 to 16 months, the monthly average collection was a little over INR 1.50 lakh crores, he said. The latest figures for the month of July, which are just out, are 1.65 lakh crore, which is 11 percent more than the previous month, said Prakash. It is the fifth time the monthly collections have exceeded Rs 1.65 lakh crore, shared the Chief Commissioner. Even the Number of Registered Tax assessors has swelled to 1.4 crore, he shared.
Earlier, we used to have one budget in a year, and we used to discuss tax-related matters after the budget was presented. Now the GST Council meets regularly to clarify the many matters that concern all of us, he added. The 50th GST Council meeting covered three important matters under the GST law: There were rate decisions taken on goods and services, as well as clarifications issued and rate regularisations undertaken. Secondly, the recommendations of various GoMs were discussed. The third matter involved clarifying that the compensation cess dues. Earlier, Mankoskar Surendrakumar Chandrakant Rao, Commissioner-Central Tax, Medchal Commissionerate, gave an overview of the technical matters of the 50th GST Council Recommendations.In his welcome address, FTCCI President Meela Jayadev said GST is marching towards ease of compliance. As these changes are a continuation process, we at FTCCI organise seminars like this at regular intervals, as they will enrich the knowledge of the consultants and several other GST-practising professionals. Sudhir VS, Chair of the GST and Customs Committee of the FTCCI, said in his opening remarks that the GST Council Meeting is a mini-budget itself that happens frequently. The 50th Council Meeting has paved the way towards settling disputes. Now GST compliance is effortless and smooth.