Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, gave the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) instructions on Saturday to undertake to automate the review of GST returns by the following week. Also to execute an action plan to expand the taxpayer base through advanced use of technology.

In a review meeting of the CBIC, she administered the board to enhance its drive to oppose falsification in billing and input tax credit (ITC).

Sitharaman wanted the CBIC to carry out an analysis of the root cause. It can be done by studying the typology of cases already booked, and coming up with suggestions on technology-based solutions to point out the risk and avoid the consequences from it.

The Revenue Secretary and CBIC Chairman as well as its members attended the meeting.

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The overall conclusion covered various work areas, involving trade support, taxpayer services, complaint compensation of the trade, finalisation of disciplinary cases and infrastructure projects, and advancement of the approaching Palasamudram campus of the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN).

Sitharaman stressed the significance of ongoing taxpayer service improvement.

Regarding grievance redressal, Sitharaman expected interaction to be arranged in each zone with the trade and industry participants who make up the Goods and Services Tax (GST) ecosystem in order to learn about their concerns and ideas and systematically detect issues for formulating a redress for them.

FM instructed to set up a system for gathering feedback on grievances resolved in order to enhance the effectiveness of the redressal.

The Finance Minister was informed at the review that the overall indirect tax revenues for 2022–2023 were Rs. 13.82 lakh crore as opposed to Rs. 12.89 lakh crore in 2021–2022, representing the final income.

For the GST, the average gross monthly collection in 2022–2023 was Rs. 1.51 lakh crore, and for 12 consecutive months, GST revenue collections exceeded Rs. 1.4 lakh crore.