The government has asked GST authorities to block input tax credit of about 1,000 taxpayers who have allegedly claimed more credit than they were eligible for, according to a senior official.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has asked every commissionerate to identify top 20 taxpayers who have the highest discrepancy in input tax credit based on the purchase-related GSTR-2A and summary GSTR-3B returns, the official said on the condition of anonymity. 

GSTR 2A is automatically generated for each business on the GST portal, while taxpayers every month file GSTR-3B that also discloses their credit liability. All commissionerates will block the input credit for the top 20 taxpayers showing a mismatch between the two returns, the official said, adding they won’t be able to adjust their credit against their future tax liability. 

Input tax credit is the tax paid on inputs that can be adjusted against future tax liabilities. The government is increasingly looking to check evasion and plug revenue leakages as it’s falling short of its tax collections estimated in the budget. 

In December, the GST Council lowered the amount of credit that can be availed to 10 percent from 20 percent if invoices or debit notes are not reflected in GSTR-2A and GSTR-3B returns. That was the second such cut after it capped it at 20 percent in October last year.  #casansaar (Source - BloomergQuint)