FinMin extends last date for availing GST amnesty scheme till Nov 30

The Finance Ministry on Sunday extended the last date to avail the GST amnesty scheme, under which taxpayers have to pay a reduced fee for delayed filing of monthly returns by three months till November 30.

The GST council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state ministers, had in May decided to come out with an Amnesty Scheme to provide relief to taxpayers in late fee for pending returns.

The late fee for non-furnishing of GSTR-3B for July 2017 to April 2021 has been capped at Rs 500 per return for those taxpayers who did not have any tax liability. For those with tax liability, a maximum Rs 1,000 per return late fees would be charged, provided such returns are filed by August 31, 2021.

Following the council decision, the Ministry on June 1 notified reduced late fee for non-furnishing Form GSTR-3B for the tax periods from July, 2017 to April, 2021, provided the taxpayer filed the returns for these tax periods by August 31, 2021.

"The last date to avail benefit of the late fee amnesty scheme, has now been extended from existing August 31, 2021 to November 30, 2021," the ministry said in a statement.

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Based on the multiple representations received, the government also extended the timelines for filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration to September 30, 2021, where the due date of filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration falls between March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021.

The filing of Form GSTR-3B and Form GSTR-1/IFF by companies using electronic verification code (EVC), instead of Digital Signature certificate (DSC), has already been enabled for the period from April 27, 2021 to August 31, 2021. This has been further extended to October 31, 2021.

"The extension of the closing date of late fee amnesty scheme and extension of time limit for filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration will benefit a large number of taxpayers, specially small taxpayers, who could not file their returns in time due to various reasons, mainly because of difficulties caused by Covid-19 pandemic, and whose registrations were cancelled due to the same," the Ministry added.

The government on Sunday extended the deadline for various compliances under the income tax law and availing relief under the GST law to help taxpayers tide over difficulties in filing such forms.

While the income tax compliances, including filing of statement for equalisation levy and remittances, reporting by multinational enterprises etc, have been extended mainly due to difficulties in electronic filing on the new I-T portal, the deadline for GST amnesty scheme and also filing of GST return electronic verification code (EVC) have been extended until November 30 and October 31 respectively to assist taxpayers in the time of Covid-19 pandemic.

The deadline for filing the Equalisation Levy statement in Form-1 for the Financial Year 2020-21 has been extended till December 31, against the original due date of June 30, the income tax department said in a statement.