Recommendations made in the 31st GST Council meeting

In the 31st meeting of GST Council held in New Delhi on 22nd December, 2018, following recommendations were made:

Recommended changes in due dates:

1. Annual returns in FORM GSTR-9, FORM GSTR-9A and reconciliation statement in FORM GSTR-9C for the Financial Year 2017-2018: 30.06.2019.
2. FORM GSTR-8 by e-commerce operators for the months of October, November and December, 2018: 31.01.2019.
3. FORM GST ITC-04 for the period July 2017 to December 2018: 31.03.2019.
4. Furnishing requisite details to the jurisdictional nodal officer by Taxpayers having Provisional ID (PID) till 31.12.2017 who did not file complete FORM GST REG-26: 31.01.2019.
5. FORM GSTR-3B and FORM GSTR-1 for the period July, 2017 to February, 2019/quarters July, 2017 to December, 2018 by taxpayers with PID: 31.03.2019.

Also, it was recommended to completely waive the Late fee for all taxpayers in case FORM GSTR-1, FORM GSTR-3B &FORM GSTR-4 for the months / quarters July, 2017 to September, 2018, if furnished before 31.03.2019.

Change in formats and process of annual return / reconciliation statement

1. Amendment of headings in FORM GSTR-9 & FORM GSTR-9A: ‘as declared in returns filed during the year’ to be substituted by ‘made during the year’
2. All returns in FORM GSTR-1 & FORM GSTR-3B have to be filed before filing of FORM GSTR-9&FORM GSTR-9C.
3. All returns in FORM GSTR-4 have to be filed before filing of FORM GSTR-9A.
4. HSN code may be declared only for those inward supplies whose value independently accounts for 10% or more of the total value of inward supplies.
5. Additional payments, if any, required to be paid can be done through FORM GST DRC-03 only in cash.
6. ITC cannot be availed through FORM GSTR-9 & FORM GSTR-9C.
7. All invoices pertaining to previous FY (irrespective of month in which such invoice is reported in FORM GSTR-1) would be auto-populated in Table 8A of FORM GSTR-9.
8. Value of “non-GST supply” shall also include the value of “no supply” and may be reported in Table 5D, 5E and 5F of FORM GSTR-9;
9. Verification by taxpayer who is uploading reconciliation statement would be included in FORM GSTR-9C.

Recommendation for new filing system:

There would be a single cash ledger for each tax head. A scheme of single authority for disbursement of the refund amount sanctioned by either the Centre or the State tax authorities would be implemented on pilot basis.
The modalities for implementation would be finalised in consultation with GSTN and the Accounting authorities. The new return filing system shall be introduced on a trial basis from 01.04.2019 and on mandatory basis from 01.07.2019.

Recommendation for Refund process

All the supporting documents/invoices in relation to a claim for refund in FORM GST RFD-01A shall be uploaded electronically on the common portal at the time of filing of the refund application. There will be no need of physical visit by taxpayer. The process will be available for:

i) Refund on account of Assessment/Provisional Assessment/Appeal/Any Other Order;

ii) Tax paid on an intra-State supply which is subsequently held to be inter-State supply and vice-versa;

iii) Excess payment of Tax; and

iv) Any other refund.

Before this refund process becomes functional, for refunds except refund of excess balance in the cash ledger, regular refund process by the way of application will be in place. The claimants shall be intimated on their registered email ids containing information on where to submit the said refund applications. If the applications are not submitted within 15 days of the date of the intimation, the said refund applications shall be summarily rejected, and the debited amount, if any, shall be re-credited to the electronic credit ledger of the claimant.

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