PRESS RELEASE

10th November, 2017

Recommendations made by the GST Council in the 23rd meeting at Guwahati on 10th November, 2017

The  GST  Council,  in  its  23rd meeting  held  at Guwahati on 10th November 2017,  has recommended the following facilitative  measures for taxpayers:

Return Filing

a) The return filing process is to be further simplified in the following manner:

i. All  taxpayers would file  return  in  FORM GSTR-3B  along  with  payment  of  tax  by 20th of the succeeding month till March, 2018.

ii. For  filing of  details  in  FORM GSTR - 1  till  March  2018,  tax payers  would  be  divided  into  two  categories.  Details  of  these  two categories  along  with  the last  date  of  filing GSTR 1 are as follows:

(a) Taxpayers with annual aggregate turnover upto Rs. 1.5 crore needto file GSTR-1on quarterly basis as per following frequency:

(b) Taxpayers  with  annual  aggregate  turnover  more  than Rs.  1.5  crore need to  file  GSTR - 1 on monthly basis as per following frequency:

iii. The  time  period for filing  GSTR-2  and  GSTR-3  for  the  months  of  July,  2017  to March  2018 would be  worked  out  by  a  Committee  of  Officers.  However,  filing  of GSTR-1  will  continue  for  the  entireperiod  without  requiring  filing  of  GSTR-2  & GSTR-3 for the previous month / period.

b) A large number of taxpayers were unable to file their return in FORM GSTR-3B within due date  for  the  months  of  July,  August  and  September,  2017.Late  fee  was  waived  in  all  such cases. It  has  been  decided  that where such  late  fee was  paid,  it will  be  re-credited to  their Electronic Cash Ledger under “Tax” head instead of “Fee” head so as to enable them to use that amount for discharge of their future tax liabilities. The software changes for this would be made and thereafter this decision will be implemented.

c) For  subsequent  months,  i.e.  October  2017  onwards, the  amount  of  late fee  payable  by  a taxpayer whose tax liability for that month was ‘NIL’ will be Rs.  20/- per  day  (Rs.  10/-per day  eachunder CGST  &  SGST Acts) instead  of  Rs.  200/- per  day  (Rs.  100/ - per  day eachunder CGST & SGST Acts) .

Manual Filing

d) A facility for manual filing of application for advance ruling is being introduced for the time being

Further benefits for service providers

e) Exports of services to Nepal and Bhutan have already been exempted from GST. It has now been decided that such exporters will also be eligible for claiming Input Tax Credit in respect of  goods or services used for effecting such exempt supply of services to Nepal and Bhutan.

f) In  an  earlier meeting  of  the  GST  Council,  it  was  decided  to  exempt  those  service  providers whose  annual  aggregate  turnover  is  less  than  Rs.  20  lakhs (Rs.  10  lakhs in  special  category states  except  J  &  K)  from  obtaining  registration  even  if  they  are  making  inter-State  taxable supplies  of  services. As  a  further  measure  towards  taxpayer  facilitation,  it  has  been  decided to exempt such suppliers providing services through an e-commerce platform from obtaining compulsory  registration  provided  their  aggregate  turnover  does  not  exceed  twenty  lakh rupees. As a result, all service providers, whether supplying intra -State, inter-State or through e-commerce  operator,  will  be  exempt  from  obtaining  GST  registration, provided  their aggregate  turnover  does  not  exceed Rs.  20  lakhs  (Rs. 10  lakhs  in  special  category  States except J & K).

Extension of dates

g) Taking  cognizance  of  the  late  availability or  unavailability of  some  forms  on  the  common portal,  it  has  been  decided  that the  due  dates  for  furnishing  the  following  forms  shall  be extended as under:

Revised due dates for subsequent tax periods will be announced in due course.

Benefits for Diplomatic Missions/UN organizations

h)  In   order   to lessen   the   compliance   burden   on Foreign   Diplomatic   Missions   /   UN Organizations, a centralized  UIN will be  issued  to  every  Foreign  Diplomatic  Mission  /  UN Organization by the Central Government and all  compliance for such  agencies will be done by the Central Government in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs

2. Relevant  notifications  for  all  of  the  above  decisions  will  be  issued  shorty,  so  as  to  be effective from 15.11.2017.