Nearly 78 lakhs businesses have migrated to the new GST Platform, in expectancy of a July 1st, 2017 rollout of the GST regime. All existing taxpayers having service tax or VAT or central excise registration are mandatorily required to obtain GST registration and complete GST migration. In this article, we look at how taxpayers can transfer the input tax credit they have on account of service tax or VAT or central excise to GST.

Transferring Input Tax Credit to GST

The procedure for transferring existing input tax credit to GST has been provided for in the Transitional Provisions rules of GST. As per the GST Transitional Provisions, all persons registered under GST and entitled to take input tax credit are required to filed GST TRAN1 within 90 days of GST implementation date on the GST Common Portal. To ease the pains GST migration, the rules allow for the Commissioner, on the recommendations of the Council, to extend the period for transferring existing input tax credit of 90 days by another 90 days.

Form GST TRAN1 for Transferring Input Tax Credit

Form GST TRAN1 as shown below must be filed on the GST Common Portal for transferring any existing input tax credit to GST input tax credit. After filing of the application and verification, the amount of credit specified in the application in FORM GST TRAN1 would be credited to the electronic credit ledger of the taxpayer maintained in FORM GST PMT2 on the GST Common Portal.

GST TRAN1 Filing Procedure

GST TRAN1 can be filed on the GST Common Platform. GST TRAN1 must contain the following information:

• For item of capital goods

1. The amount of tax or duty availed or utilized by way of input tax credit under each of the existing laws till the appointed day, and

2. The amount of tax or duty yet to be availed or utilized by way of input tax credit under each of the existing laws till the appointed day;

• For stock held

1. The name of the supplier, serial number and date of issue of the invoice by the supplier or any document on the basis of which credit of input tax was admissible under the existing law;

2. The description and value of the goods or services;

3. The quantity in case of goods and the unit or unit quantity code;

4. The amount of eligible taxes and duties or, as the case may be, the value added tax [or entry tax] charged by the supplier in respect of the goods or services, and

5. The date on which the receipt of goods or services is entered in the books of account of the recipient.

Filing Declaration

All taxpayers who are migrating their existing input tax credit to GST will be required to submit a declaration in Form GST TRAN1, furnishing the proportion of supply on which VAT or service tax has been paid before the GST implementation date but the supply is made after the implementation date and input tax credit is admissible.