GST Council Recommendations Accepted: The government has exempted registered persons whose aggregate turnover in the financial year 2021-22 was up to Rs 2 crore from filing the annual return for the financial year. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and IMPS payments mechanism have also been introduced to make payments at GSTN, the IT backbone of the indirect tax system, according to an official notification released on Wednesday.
The time limit for the issuance of the GST recovery notice for 2017-18 has also been extended till September 30, 2023. The period from March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2022, has been excluded from the computation of the period of limitation, and for the computation of the period of limitation for filing a refund application, said the notification giving effect to the recommendations of 47th GST Council meeting.
Abhishek Jain, partner (indirect tax) at KPMG in India, said, “Considering the COVID-19 scenario of the last two years for India, the government has extended the limitation period under GST for issuance of notice to taxpayers who have not paid/ short paid the tax due. Similarly, relaxation in limitation is granted for filing refunds. While the intention of the government is to curb revenue leakage, this change keeps the businesses exposed to departmental audits and assessments for some additional time. This being said this change also ensures that genuine taxpayers are not denied their refund claims.”
Interest in case of delay filing of return will be payable on the amount paid in cash only. Input tax credit (ITC) formula for the refund of an inverted duty structure revamped in light of the SC judgment. The refund on exports to be granted once there is no mismatch between shipping bill and GSTR 3B.
Jain said, “The government has granted the exemption to taxpayers with aggregate turnover of up to Rs 2 crore in FY 2021-22 from filing annual return for said FY. Further, in line with the GST Council decision, IMPS and UPI payment modes have been introduced to make payments at GSTN. These changes will help the small players in undertaking compliances, and will lighten the burden for taxpayers with less than Rs 2 crore turnover to the extent of filing of annual return under GST.”
He also said that from an industry point of view, a minor mismatch in the value of goods exported, between GST returns and shipping bill, is common on account of forex fluctuations. “As such, the government has amended the GST law to say that application for refund of integrated tax paid on the goods exported out of India will be deemed to have been filed on such date when such mismatch in respect of the said shipping bill is rectified by the exporter. Given this change, the businesses would have to be slightly more pro-active in getting the mismatches rectified, so as to ensure timely refund processing.”
During its 47th meeting, the GST Council also decided on a waiver of late fee for delay in filing form GSTR-4 for FY 2021-22 and extension of due date for filing form GST CMP-08 for Q1 of FY 2022-23. The GST Council extend the waiver of late fee under section 47 for delay in filing form GSTR-4 for FY 2021-22 by approximately four more weeks, till July 28. The existing waiver is for the period from May 1 to June 30. The council also decided extend the due date of filing of form GST CMP-08 for the first quarter of FY 2022-23 from July 18 to July 31.
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