CBIC to scale up departmental audits to boost GST compliance

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is set to scale up scrutiny and departmental audits of risky taxpayers to improve goods and services tax (GST) collections while using data and technology to ensure that officials make decisions transparently, chairman Vivek Johri said in an interview.

Johri anticipates the central government’s indirect tax revenue sources to undergo a shift, with green mobility picking up and fossil fuel consumption declining over time.

That would mean more services such as electric vehicle charging stations and service centres emerging as sources of GST collections, while an emphasis on tax compliance in domestic transactions and a wider tax base helps make up for the lower usage of fossil fuels for revenue collections.

In an interview, the CBIC chairman said that compliance improvement measures taken by the department are already showing in GST collections.