The government has exempted registered persons whose aggregate turnover in the financial year 2021-22 was up to RS 2 crore from filing the annual return for the financial year. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and IMPS payments mechanism have also been introduced to make payments at GSTN, the IT backbone of the indirect tax system, according to an official notification released on Wednesday.
The time limit for the issuance of the GST recovery notice for 2017-18 has also been extended till September 30, 2023. The period from March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2022, has been excluded from the computation of the period of limitation, and for the computation of the period of limitation for filing a refund application, said the notification giving effect to the recommendations of 47th GST Council meeting.
Abhishek Jain, partner (indirect tax) at KPMG in India, said, “Considering the COVID-19 scenario of the last two years for India, the government has extended the limitation period under GST for issuance of notice to taxpayers who have not paid/ short paid the tax due. Similarly, relaxation in limitation is granted for filing refunds. While the intention of the government is to curb revenue leakage, this change keeps the businesses exposed to departmental audits and assessments for some additional time. This being said this change also ensures that genuine taxpayers are not denied their refund claims.”
Interest in case of delay filing of return will be payable on the amount paid in cash only. Input tax credit (ITC) formula for the refund of an inverted duty structure revamped in light of the SC judgment. The refund on exports to be granted once there is no mismatch between shipping bill and GSTR 3B.