FM Sitharaman to take stock of tax issues: Depts seek data from field offices

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Pending refunds, investigations, adjudications, litigation along with the number of frauds and recoveries — these are some of the specific queries being asked from field offices by the headquarters of direct and indirect tax authorities under the Ministry of Finance ahead of a brainstorming conclave next week. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold detailed interactions with the indirect tax and direct tax authorities on June 20 and June 23, respectively, to discuss a broad range of issues including refund processing and their rejection trends, pending investigations, systems, and non-processing of returns.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is going to hold a two-day conclave on June 19-20, while the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will host a similar session with its field officers on June 23.

The Finance Minister is expected to lay special emphasis on timely refund processing, especially in export and SEZ-linked categories, officials said. “Delays beyond 60 days will be scrutinised, and zones may be asked to.explain pendency and rejection trends with detailed analytics,” an official said.

The Minister will also review the dwell time of cargo clearance across ports and airports. “High pendency in DGGI (Directorate General of GST Intelligence) investigations, especially those pending over 180 days, is likely to draw critical attention,” the official said.

In a series of missives sent to the field officers this week, the CBIC and CBDT have sought detailed information regarding the pendency claims, pending refunds, frauds, investigations and the cases stuck in litigation. Officials said data is being collated ahead of the meeting to have a threadbare discussion on all the issues affecting taxpayers in the conclave.

In a letter sent on Friday, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) field officers have been asked to provide details about cases where a large number of fake firms are being managed or operated by one mastermind. “The registration data of these groups of fake firms may be examined on priority in detail (in one or two big cases) as to how the mastermind was able to obtain GST registration without being caught during the registration process. This will enable us to plug loopholes in the registration system and achieving the objective of making the registration process more robust, more simple, quick and automated while preventing fake dealers from getting registration,” the letter stated.