A simple approach in learning about GST Payments :

Types of payment under Erstwhile Taxation laws vs GST Payments: As we all know that under previous Indirect tax regime we witnessed that the States and Central had their separate share of province and administration over Taxes where few tax levy and collections belonged to central and few were left with the State governments. But the types of payment under GST law is totally different from erstwhile taxation laws which one can preview from the following table below :

Who is liable for GST Payment : Generally, Supplier is liable to pay the tax. But In Other cases like Imports and other notified supplies, liabilities may be imposed on the recipient under the reverse charge mechanism (RCM). And even in some cases by third person for example in case of: E-commerce, the E Commerce Operator is responsible for deducting and paying TCS and for contractual  Payments, Government / Other notified entities are responsible for TDS.

What are the modes in which I can pay my Taxes : Amount may be deposited in Electronic Cash Ledger by making E-Payment (Internet Banking, Credit Card – pre registration with the portal, Debit Card, RTGS / NEFT) at any authorized branches of Banks to accept GST payments. Over the Counter payment (OTC) through authorized banks for deposits upto Rs. 10,000/- per Challan per tax period, by cash, cheque or demand draft can also be made. The payment process is such that your principal tax liability is first debited from Electronic Credit Ledger of the Taxpayer maintained on the “Common Portal and balance left out is deducted from the E Cash wallet topped up by you by any of the following way discussed above.

Note: Interest, Penalty and Fees cannot be paid by debiting the Electronic Credit Ledger and it could be paid only through the Cash ledger. And all the cash deposited by you would be shown as a credit to Electronic Cash Ledger maintained on the “Common Portal”.

Finer Point Study:
• What forms part of Electronic Credit Ledger : Input tax credit balance uploaded from GST TRAN – 1 shall be credited to the Electronic Credit Ledger on common portal. The Input tax credit would be of stock of Inputs, Semi-finished goods and Finished goods on the relevant date, from which Taxpayer becomes liable. And also the tax credits on inward supplies from Registered Taxpayers, tax credits distributed from Input Service Distributor (ISD) forms part of Electronic Credit Ledger of a taxpayer. The Permissible credits on stocks held upon conversion from composition scheme and the ITC eligible on payment made on reverse charge basis also gets inside the Electronic Credit ledger of the taxpayer

When should I make GST Payments: On occurrence of any one of the following events, GST payment would
become due (earliest of the following):
• Receipt of advance
• Issuance of Invoice
• Completion of Supply

What are the due dates for making GST Payments:

• CGST / SGST / IGST Payment Date = 20th of the Succeeding Month

• Normal Taxpayer with turnover of less than 1.5 Crores - on Monthly Basis in return GSTR3B
• Normal Tax payer with turnover of more than 1.5 Crores – on Monthly basis in return GSTR3B
• Composition Taxpayer – on Monthly basis in return GSTR 3B

• TDS / TCS payment on 10th of the succeeding month on monthly basis

Note: Credit to the account of Government will be considered as date of deposit of Tax and in cases of  Interest payments 18% will be calculated in case of delayed payment of tax, and Interest rate  will be 24% in case of excess claim of input tax credit or excess reduction in output tax Liability.

Things one must know about GST Payment Process: Only electronically generated Challan from GSTN for all 3 modes of payment is accepted by the system as theirs is no concept of reverse digitization in the entire workflow process of GST Payments. After generating the challan, a Unique 14-digit Common Portal Identification Number (CPIN) would be generated for each challan made by you. And this challan can be generated by Taxpayer, authorized representative or Departmental officers as well not necessarily that taxpayers alone can generate challan or the challan has to be generated and paid only through taxpayers bank account. (Note: A Single challan for all four types of taxes is enough, one need not create separate challan for different payments of IGST, CGST, SGST and UGST, all payments could be paid from one challan itself.) There is a System of Electronic Cash Ledger, Electronic Credit ledger, Electronic Liability ledger on GSTN maintained for each taxpayer separately and this system ensures automation and transparency in flow of information.

To sum it up, one can say that there is a paradigm shift in the way tax payments will be made in the soon-to-be-in-force GST, as compared to the methods to which we have become accustomed. The shift helps to support GST's aim to make the entire tax process run smoothly with minimal government involvement — all with the aid of technology and thus making the whole process of GST Payment seamless as it allows dealers to make payments by themselves instead of relying on professional help. It is worth noting that we are almost approaching towards closing of a financial year which had tax reform like GST introduced in it. And from now on every businesses have to be updated to ERP systems that are GST ready and which takes care of GST compliance profile and also streamline the tax process into present business operations and Tally.ERP 9 (Release 6.4) has every solutions that a business need for being GST Compliant in this changed tax scenario.