Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the IT backbone of the indirect tax system, has identified developing ‘Business Intelligence and Analytics’ as one of the key priority areas. Such a tool will not just help in identifying discrepancies in the system but also be able to curb tax evasion carried out through unscrupulous methods such as circular trading.

The ‘not for profit’ company also announced on Friday that it will analyse final sales return data with respect to e-way bill to help improve compliance. Its Chief Executive Officer Prakash Kumar said the analysis of HSN (Harmonised System of Nomenclature) code in e-way bill data helps to know which commodity is moving from which part of country to where and thereby the end user can be identified.

“We are doing simple analytics by just comparing GSTR-3B and 1,” Kumar said while addressing a press conference on one year of GST. He said the potential of data analytics is huge as it helps not only to improve compliance but also helps in policy making. The data analytics can be done on how the same kind of taxpayers is behaving and also on circular trade for tracking actual movement of goods. “Once you have data at one place, there at techniques and we have started analysing. We will be developing tools for our tax officers so that they can do it themselves,” Kumar said while adding that analysis can be on what is reported in e-way bill and what’s reported in GSTR-1. “Today analysis of e-way bill data will tell you which are the hub-and-spoke of a country for every commodity. Which commodity goes where and from where it is distributed,” he said.

Kumar further said that current trend of return filing for the month of May shows that people have started filing returns way in advance. “People have started filing returns from the 11th day of the subsequent month. This is a good trend,” he said. So far, number of taxpayers registered with the GST system has grown to 1.12 crore from an initial of 63.76 lakh. As many as 12 crore returns have been filed till date and 380 crore invoices processed.

Conversion of GSTN

When asked about progress on GST Council decision to convert GSTN into a Government-owned company from ‘not for profit’ private company, GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that the process is going on. He also clarified that even before becoming a Government company, it is discharging the responsibility of a government company even though currently 51 per cent of the shares are being held by private institutions. GSTN has been under CAG audit and will continue to be audited by the official auditor, Pandey said.

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