An RAI delegation had met with the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes of Karnataka regarding the cross matching of input tax credits i.e. e-UPass to address the various reasons for the occurrence of mismatch. Please click here to view the representation.

The Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Karnataka, emphasised that even though relief, in terms of opportunity of being heard on mis-match/audit/assessments and producing invoice as proof are provided in current scenario, the same will not be available in proposed GST and any monthly mis-match will be disallowed by the system, automatically. He further highlighted that retailers and vendors need to focus on addressing the mismatch in terms of their ERP changes/process improvents/people training and guiding vendors. He also mentioned that in the GST regime, the mismatch may get more complex with product rate level data being compared. Key Relief points:

1. The Commissioner assured that current mismatch will not by default lead to disallowance of input credit. The mis-match report will only be used to identify/pick cases for Audit/assessment, whereby retailers can produce valid documents in terms of invoices etc. and can continue to be eligible for credit.
2. He agreed to provide extension in the timeline up to 31st July 2015. He further assured that depending upon progress, this can be revisited again.
3. Furthermore, it was agreed to provide details online about the nature of mismatch along with the vendor details. This will enable retailers to address the mismatch issue at a faster pace and can focus on problem areas. This would be made available at the earliest.
4. The Commissioner also assured that, in case invoice details match, however, there is amount mismatch between Vendor and Retailer [typically in case when PO raised is lower than invoice] - department will allow acceptance of mismatch for the lower of two amounts.
5. The Commissioner's office has currently finished some fine tuning of reports in terms of rounding off gaps/ improvement in logics used for invoice /date mismatches, which should reduce the gap.
6. Further Joint Commissioner - E-Audit has also offered to support the companies in terms of online report improvements/guiding them to address pain areas in the future.

The RAI delegation also requested the Joint Commissioner to address all RAI members to which he has agreed. RAI shall soon organize the seminar/workshop, dates of which will be intimited to members.