Key Highlights of 39th GST Council Meeting
The 39th GST Council meeting that was held on 14th March 2020 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi was chaired by the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. The meeting had taken place amid the economic recession caused due to the coronavirus outbreak. The COVID-19 has now become a global pandemic that has adversely impacted the world economy.
At such situation, there were high expectations that the GST Council shall bring some favourable decisions to tackle the slumping economy by the way of certain GST reforms. Expectations were also high regarding giving a boost to the manufacturing sector.
However, the 39th GST Council meeting has come out with several recommendations.
#1. Measures for Trade facilitation
#2. Relaxation in GST cancellation revocation deadline
#3. Annual GST Return filing changes
#4. Relaxations in GST return filing procedure
#5. E-invoicing scheme postponed
Let us understand these in detail.
#1. Measures for Trade facilitation
Certain changes have been made by the GST council at the 39th meeting for increasing ease of doing business for the small traders having GST registration. These are discussed below:-
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Now onwards, the Interest for the delay in GST payment shall be charged on the net cash GST liability, i.e. after deducting the ITC available from the gross tax liability.
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The rule has been amended with retrospective effect. The net tax liability has to be calculated with effect from 1st July 2017.
#2. Relaxation in GST cancellation revocation deadline
GST council has provided relaxation to all those taxpayers who have filed for cancellation of the GST registration.
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The deadline for revocation of the GST cancellation has been further extended as a one-time measure to assist all those who still want to conduct their business.
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Henceforth, all the GST registration certificates that have been filed for cancellation till 14th March 2020, application for revocation of cancellation of registration can now be filled up to 30th June 2020.
#3. Annual GST Return filing changes
The GST Council has given some relaxation to the MSMEs with regard to the filing of GST Audit Report in FORM GSTR-9C, for the FY 2018-19.
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For those taxpayers whose aggregate turnover was up to ₹5 crores, the Due date for filing the GSTR-9 and the GSTR-9C (Audit Report) for FY 2018-19 has been extended till 30th June 2020.
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Besides, the late filing fee for delayed filing of the GSTR-9 & 9C has been waived off for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 for those taxpayers having GST registration with aggregate turnover below ₹2 crores.
#4. Relaxations in GST return filing procedure
Noticing the economic slowdown and lack of business, due to which there might be an inability to fulfil compliance, the GST council has given certain relaxations to the traders having GST registration with regard to GST return filing:-
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The requirement to file GSTR-1 for FY 2019-20 has now been waived for service providers & mixed suppliers having GST registration who didn’t opt for special composition scheme through FORM GST CMP-02. Know more about the special GST composition scheme.
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The due dates for FORM GSTR-3B for the period July to January 2020 has been extended till 24th March 2020 for the traders having GST registration whose principal place of business is in the Union territory of Ladakh.
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For such taxpayers of Ladakh, the due date for FORM GSTR-1 & GSTR-7 shall also be extended.
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New GST returns filing system shall be on hold. The existing system of filing GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B to be carried on till September 2020.
#5. E-invoicing scheme postponed
The implementation of GST e-invoicing on the common portal with “Dynamic QR Code” is suspended as of now. The e-invoicing functionality is extended till 1st October 2020.
Accordingly, the following entities having GST registration are exempted from furnishing e-invoices and capturing dynamic QR code:-
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Insurance company,
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Banking company,
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Financial institution,
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Non-banking financial company (NBFC),
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Goods Transport Agency (GTA),
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Passenger transporters
However, the taxpayers can easily generate the GST invoices using the Instabill software.
So, these are the key updates of the 39th GST Council Meeting.
If you need any further guidance as regards the GST registration or the GST return filing procedure, please feel free to contact our business advisors at 8881-069-069.
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