<p>Bengaluru: The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday passed a Bill to introduce a track-and-trace mechanism to plug Goods and Services Tax (GST) leakage in tobacco and arecanut products.</p><p>"There's a big tax leakage when it comes to tobacco and arecanut products. Pan masala and gutka...there's a huge difference between sales and what's being declared," Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who represents Karnataka in the GST Council, said.</p><p>Gowda was piloting the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill.</p><p>The minister said huge quantities of arecanut get dispatched from Sirsi, Honnalli and Davangere in Karnataka. "But they don't match with sales. There's an organised nexus. They know by which road to enter Andhra Pradesh, then Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh where processing happens. We can't find them even if we go after them," he said.</p>.'Yallamma Devi temple is not private property': Supreme Court sets aside Karnataka High Court order.<p>"We're introducing track-and-trace into the value chain. Right from the primary product to the final product, all ingredients will be tracked. Based on that, we can detect the volume of sales. We're bringing enabling provisions for track-and-trace," Gowda said.</p><p>The Bill also has provisions to curb misuse of input tax credit (ITC). "Some people are illegally claiming ITC. There are ITC refund scams being widely reported. We need to apply a systemic fix for this instead of going after individuals for recovery. Thousands of crores are being claimed," Gowda said.</p><p>"For example, I'll claim that I've purchased something. Without actually purchasing anything, I'll upload it in the system, claim a refund and disappear. We're now saying that the (seller) should say there's been a purchase. We're introducing some amendments for this," the minister said.</p><p>The Bill also introduces a 'track-and-trace' mechanism to detect the exact volume of sales for the assessment of tax liability.</p><p>Gowda pointed out that all states were required to make these provisions ahead of the next GST Council meeting. </p>
<p>Bengaluru: The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday passed a Bill to introduce a track-and-trace mechanism to plug Goods and Services Tax (GST) leakage in tobacco and arecanut products.</p><p>"There's a big tax leakage when it comes to tobacco and arecanut products. Pan masala and gutka...there's a huge difference between sales and what's being declared," Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who represents Karnataka in the GST Council, said.</p><p>Gowda was piloting the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill.</p><p>The minister said huge quantities of arecanut get dispatched from Sirsi, Honnalli and Davangere in Karnataka. "But they don't match with sales. There's an organised nexus. They know by which road to enter Andhra Pradesh, then Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh where processing happens. We can't find them even if we go after them," he said.</p>.'Yallamma Devi temple is not private property': Supreme Court sets aside Karnataka High Court order.<p>"We're introducing track-and-trace into the value chain. Right from the primary product to the final product, all ingredients will be tracked. Based on that, we can detect the volume of sales. We're bringing enabling provisions for track-and-trace," Gowda said.</p><p>The Bill also has provisions to curb misuse of input tax credit (ITC). "Some people are illegally claiming ITC. There are ITC refund scams being widely reported. We need to apply a systemic fix for this instead of going after individuals for recovery. Thousands of crores are being claimed," Gowda said.</p><p>"For example, I'll claim that I've purchased something. Without actually purchasing anything, I'll upload it in the system, claim a refund and disappear. We're now saying that the (seller) should say there's been a purchase. We're introducing some amendments for this," the minister said.</p><p>The Bill also introduces a 'track-and-trace' mechanism to detect the exact volume of sales for the assessment of tax liability.</p><p>Gowda pointed out that all states were required to make these provisions ahead of the next GST Council meeting. </p>
