The Ministry of Finance on the 22nd of January announced that keeping in mind the concerns raised by the taxpayers with respect to the filing of GSTR-3B, and the difficulties faced by trade and industry in filing of returns, the government has decided to introduce several measures to ease the process. The Finance Ministry said that now GST taxpayers can file their GSTR-3B returns in a staggered manner. (To read the full notification click here). The last date to file GSTR-3 B has been revised as follows:
|
Category |
Due Date |
No. of taxpayers |
|
Taxpayers having annual turnover of Rs 5 crore and above in the previous FY |
20th of every month without late fees |
8 lakhs |
|
Tax filers from 15 States/ UTs, i.e., Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh having annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in the previous FY. |
22nd of every month without late fees |
49 lakhs |
|
Tax filers from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha having annual turnover below Rs 5 |
24th of every month without late fees |
46 lakhs |
Basically instead of making the portal better, the traffic/ burden on the GST Portal has now been channelized and divided by introducing three due dates for different categories of taxpayers. The government has in a way accepted that the portal is not able to handle the whopping traffic of the taxpayers.
Hopefully, the taxpayers will no longer have to face server issues on the portal now while filing their returns. Well, whether this initiative by the government will solve the problem is yet to be figured out.
After the announcement was made many tax practitioners said that it is a good move by the government. However, so many other tax practitioners claimed that the move is nothing but another extension disguised as a simplification. Amidst all this confusion some tax practitioners say that doing away with late fees might be a way out, while some claim that the government should do away with GSTR-3B for the small taxpayers.
We’d like to know what is your opinion on this? Are you happy with the government’s initiative that now allows the filing of GSTR-3B in a staggered manner?
CAclubindia
