GST mess: Deadlines for filing returns 2, 3 extended after complaints; relief for businesses

The government on Monday extended the due date by a month for filing of goods and services tax returns (GSTR)-2 to 30 November and returns-3 to 11 December. The move comes after complaints from businesses about problems in matching invoices while filing GSTR-2 on the GST Network portal. This is the first month of filing GSTR-2. Form GSTR-2 reflects purchases made by a business whereas GSTR-3 is a combination of sales and purchases. Form GSTR-2 reflects purchases made by a business whereas GSTR-3 is a combination of sales and purchases. [caption id=“attachment_4160855” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] The deadline to file GSTR-2 was Tuesday whereas the last date for filing GSTR-3 was 10 November. “To facilitate trade, the last date for filing GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 for July 2017 has been extended to November 30 and December 11 respectively,” a government tweet said.

Government extends the last date of filing of GSTR-2 for July, 2017 to 30th November, 2017; For details, https://t.co/5fmcupsrom

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) October 30, 2017

last date for filing of GSTR-3 for the month of July, 2017 also stands extended to 11th December, 2017 (deadline was 10th November, 2017).

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) October 30, 2017

More from Business

Hyundai India’s Rs 27,870 crore IPO oversubscribed by 2.28X, largely driven by institutional investors How Indian fintech startups are driving Malaysia’s UPI-like digital payments revolution

“A notification in this regard will be issued to facilitate about 30.81 lakh taxpayers for filing GSTR-2 for July,” the Finance Ministry tweeted.

A Notification in this regard is being issued shortly - to facilitate about 30.81 lakh taxpayers for filing GSTR-2 for month of July, 2017.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) October 30, 2017

The decision comes after the Group of Ministers headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi met on 28 October in Bengaluru to review the issues faced under the Goods and Services Tax filings. Experts reacted to the government extension: GST expert Pritam Mahure told IANS: This extension was necessitated as many technical glitches were cropping up during GSTR-2 filing. In days to come, the government should have well thought out strategy to address GST compliance issues. Aditya Singhania, DGM GST, Taxmann The matching concept is a much appreciated step for allowing input tax credit which is regulated by the GSTR 1, 2 and 3 mechanism. But with the brilliant concept, the IT platform of GST i.e.  www.gst.gov.in should equally work in same wavelength for achieving the objective. Due to certain bugs and frictions, coupled with totally new forms of returns,  taxpayers were unable to file the same on time. Looking at the practical deficiency, a pragmatic, timely and much appreciated step has been taken by the Government to extend the due date of GSTR 2  and 3 for the month of July, 2017. However, once the people complete atleast one cycle of GSTR 1, 2 and 3, taxpayers will feel comfortable and the statistics is expected to rise in coming tax periods. With the extension in GSTR 2 till 30th November, 2017, still the taxpayers who had not filed GSTR 1 yet will be barred from filing GSTR 1 for the month of July, 2017 till the due date of GSTR 2 gets over. Late fee levied on this account would again be a point of concern for taxpayers. Furthermore, with due date being 11th December, 2017 for GSTR 3 will now open the opportunity for taxpayers to claim ITC from Input Service Distributer which earlier seems to be blocked since the due date of GSTR 6 (ISD return) being 15th November, 2017 which was later than due date of filing GSTR 3 for the month of July, 2017.” Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO, ClearTax GSTR-2 is the most important return for GST compliance since availability of ITC depends on it. This return requires matching and reconciling and automatic review, to make sure manual effort is minimised.Since the last date for submission of audited ITRs and GSTR-2 coincided, it put a strain on some taxpayers. Besides, the ecosystem also needs some more stability and preparedness for smooth compliance to take place.(With inputs from IANS)