Government Extends Due Date for Filing FY19 GST Returns

The government has extended by a month the due date for filing annual goods and services tax returns for the financial year ended March 2019 to help businesses meet compliance norms amid the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new deadline for filing annual GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C returns has been extended to Oct. 31 from Sept. 30 earlier, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said in a tweet.

Every registered taxpayer with an annual turnover of more than Rs 5 crore is required to get his accounts audited and file audited annual returns.

The industry, including Institute of Chartered Accountants in India, had sought a three-month extension in deadline for filing annual returns. That’s because businesses were running with partial strength, and the focus was on keeping operations running rather than meeting compliance.

The extension given to taxpayers will be helpful as they were unable to collate data due to the pandemic, said Rajat Mohan, a partner at tax consultancy firm AMRG & Associates.

But Krishan Arora, a partner at Grant Thornton India LLP, said it is unfortunate that the government announced extension on the last day, and forced taxpayers to tirelessly work on this compliance even when it needed more time when they are grappling with much larger issues in pandemic.

Separately, Abhishek Jain, partner at EY India, said the e-invoicing framework, that will kick in from Oct. 1, can be made voluntary for a few months due to the pandemic.