Reportedly, Businesses having nil tax liability under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for six consecutive months may soon be allowed to file return bi-annually. If this proposal gets the nod of the GST Council, it will be a great relief to such entities.
Sources said that, the most-powerful GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, will at its next meeting consider the proposal to simplify the GST return forms.
“Taxpayers whose liability is nil for six consecutive months will be required to file six-monthly return,” an official told PTI.
As per the proposal prepared by the revenue authorities, the return filing date would be spread out. Businesses having annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore will have to file return by 10th of next month, while others can file return by 20th.
The number of returns filed by both small and large taxpayers would be 12 in a year.
Under the GST regime, taxpayers were required to submit three returns in a month and one annual return.
Due to complexity in filing procedure and the technical glitches in the official portal, GSTN, the GST Council formed a Group of Ministers to recommend a simplified return filing process.
“The idea is to make return filing process simple and implement it in a phased manner,” the official said, adding that initially would be simple and on the basis of experience gained, more features would be added over time.
The official said after last date of filing of the return, businesses will get three months to rectify their returns by adding, modifying details or correcting the missing invoices. Thereafter, the input tax credit would be reconciled with the suppliers’ tax paid invoice. Taxpayers having annual turnover below Rs 1.5 crore would not be required to quote harmonized system of nomenclature (HSN) in their return form, he said.
Currently, businesses file summary return GSTR-3B and final sales return GSTR-1.
