GST taxpayers will now have the option to amend their outward supply or sales return form GSTR-1 before paying taxes for a month or quarter. The GST Council, in its meeting on Saturday, recommended providing a new optional facility by way of Form GSTR-1A to facilitate taxpayers in amending details in Form GSTR-1 for a tax period or to declare additional details. This new form, GSTR-1A, however, needs to be filed before filing the return in GSTR-3B for the same tax period. This new facility will enable taxpayers to add any particulars of supply from the current tax period that were missed in the initial reporting of GSTR-1, or to amend any particulars already declared in GSTR-1 of the current tax period, including those declared in IFF for the first and second months of a quarter, if applicable, for quarterly taxpayers. This will ensure that the correct liability is auto-populated in GSTR-3B.
Currently, GST taxpayers file their outward supply return GSTR-1 by the 11th day of the following month. Taxpayers with an annual turnover of up to Rs 5 crore can file GSTR-1 quarterly within the 13th day of the end of the quarter. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co Partner Rajat Bose stated that this change recommended by the council is a positive step from a compliance perspective and will facilitate ease of doing business. Abhishek Jain, Indirect Tax Head & Partner, KPMG, said that allowing revision of filings made in GSTR-1 is a beneficial move to rectify clerical and inadvertent errors before the payment of taxes and curtail unwarranted notices for reconciliation of disclosures in GSTR-1 and payment of taxes via GSTR-3B. Jain added, “It’ll be interesting to see the mechanism for a population of GSTR-2B for the recipient and the time gap available to the recipient for reconciling credits.”
BDO India Indirect Tax Partner Maulik Manakiwala said that the introduction of Form GSTR-1A to report particulars missed during the submission of GSTR-1 indicates that the government, through proactive consultation with industry, is focused on simplifying GST law and easing compliance for the assessee. The GST Council also recommended that taxpayers having an aggregate annual turnover of up to Rs two crore are exempt from filing annual returns in form GSTR-9/9A for the FY 2023-24. This exemption is expected to further streamline the filing process and reduce the administrative burden for smaller businesses.
