An Analysis on Specific Emerging GST Issues Due to Covid-19

Abstract

The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic across the world makes our life standstill. Life has become very tough. People stated working remotely from their home. Government have prevented workers for working and consumers from spending, other than on essentials. This slow-down in economy is unavoidable and brought about by a public health emergency. Production of most goods and delivery are plummeting since workers are staying away from work. Many service tasks can be done remotely but most production of goods requires social proximity. In the short-run, companies may have inventories to meet the demand for their goods. But in long-run, prices could rise when stock and inventories run low. Due to lockdown there was drastic decline in GST collections as most of business establishment were shut down. The Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman immediately stepped in and announced some major stimulus to ease the compliance burden of the tax payers. Interestingly, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India also suo moto decided to remain everything standstill until further notice. Any notice, any appeal or any compliance to be done will remain standstill. As per Article 141, the decision of the Supreme Court is supreme in the country. So, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 various issues related to GST has emerged. To address these issues the government undertook some preventive measures like the extension of time limits of various compliances, waiver of late fees levied on delay in filing return, relaxation on availing ITC on invoices not uploaded by vendors etc. The present study is an attempt to identify and analyze the emerging GST issues due to Covid-19 pandemic.