The 37th GST Council met in Goa today under the Chairmanship of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman. The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs Shri Anurag Thakur besides Chief Minister of Goa Shri Pramod Sawant, Finance Ministers of States & UTs and seniors officers of the Ministry of Finance[1].
The GST Council, in its 37th meeting, recommended the following Law & Procedure-related changes:
1. Relaxation in the filing of annual returns for MSMEs for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 as under:
a) waiver of the requirement of filing FORM GSTR-9A for Composition Taxpayers for the said tax periods; and
b) filing of FORM GSTR-9 for those taxpayers who (are required to file the said return but) have an aggregate turnover up to Rs. 2 crores made optional for the said tax periods.
2. A Committee of Officers to be constituted to examine the simplification of Forms for Annual Return and reconciliation statement.
3. Extension of the last date for filing of appeals against orders of Appellate Authority before the GST Appellate Tribunal as the Appellate Tribunals are yet not functional.
4. In order to nudge taxpayers to timely file their statement of outward supplies, the imposition of restrictions on availment of the input tax credit by the recipients in cases where details of outward supplies are not furnished by the suppliers in the statement under section 37 of the CGST Act, 2017.
5. New return system now to be introduced from April, 2020 (earlier proposed from October, 2019), in order to give ample opportunity to taxpayers as well as the system to adapt and accordingly specifying the due date for furnishing of return in FORM GSTR-3B and details of outward supplies in FORM GSTR-1 for the period October, 2019 – March, 2020.
6. Issuance of circulars for uniformity in the application of the law across all jurisdictions:
a) procedure to claim a refund in FORM GST RFD-01A subsequent to favourable order in appeal or any other forum;
b) eligibility to file a refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A for a period and category under which a NIL refund application has already been filed; and
c) clarification regarding the supply of Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS services) (in supersession of Circular No. 107/26/2019-GST dated 18.07.2019) being made on own account or as an intermediary.
7. Rescinding of Circular No.105/24/2019-GST dated 28.06.2019, ab-initio, which was issued in respect of post-sales discount.
8. Suitable amendments in the CGST Act, UTGST Act, and the corresponding SGST Acts in view of the creation of UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
9. Integrated refund system with disbursal by a single authority to be introduced from 24th September 2019.
10. In principle decision to link Aadhar with the registration of taxpayers under GST and examine the possibility of making Aadhar mandatory for claiming refunds.
11. In order to tackle the menace of fake invoices and fraudulent refunds, in-principle decision to prescribe reasonable restrictions on the passing of credit by risky taxpayers including risky new taxpayers.
Note: The recommendations of the GST Council have been presented in this release in a simple language only for immediate information of all stakeholders. The same would be given effect through relevant Circulars/Notifications which alone shall have the force of law.
[1] Read The Notification available at https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1585719.
