May’20: Key Goods & Services Tax (GST) Updates

In a major relief to the businesses impacted by the national-wide extended lockdown’s amid the Covid-19 outbreak, The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has addressed three major challenges being faced by taxpayers. Firstly, with most parts of the country under lockdown or partial lockdown, it would have been difficult for the industry to meet the GST Audit timeline of 30^th June 2020. Further extension of lockdown caused e-way bills to expire due to restriction on the movement of trucks which has pushed the government to give an extension for E-way bills. Similarly, the taxpayers were facing some issues in the filing the process of GSTR-3B through physical DSC tokens for which the process of filing is required to be improvised. In order to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties being faced by taxpayers, CBIC came up with three very important notifications on 5^th May 2020 for taxpayers to breathe easy on the compliance front. The relaxations provided under these notifications are summarized below for a quick reference. Extension of the due date of Annual Return and GST Audit to 30^th September 2020 Central Government vide Notification No. 41/ 2020-Central Tax dated 05.05.2020 has further extended the due date for furnishing of Annual return (GSTR 9) and reconciliation statement (GSTR 9C) from 30.06.2020 to 30.09.2020. Extension in Validity of E-Way Bill Central Government vide Notification No. 40/ 2020-Central Tax dated 05.05.2020 has extended the validity of e-way bills issued on or before the 24.03.2020 and whose validity expires between 20.03.2020 to 15.04.2020, the validity of such e-way bills shall be extended till 31.05.2020. GSTR-3B filing through EVC Mode Central Government vide Notification No. 38/ 2020-Central Tax dated 05.05.2020 has opened the facility for corporate taxpayers to verify & file GSTR 3B for the period 21.04.2020 to 30.06.2020 through electronic verification code (EVC) in addition to the DSC verification mode. Last Updated: 16th March 2020 This article is contributed by:  Vaibhav Matta Assistant Director, Taxation  

Tag: GST