GST Return Defaulter – Last Opportunity for Dealers

Dear Readers, in this coolest winter season, now the government is planning to give some heat to the GST Return Defaulters. This time the government is not in the mood of giving any further opportunity to GST Return Defaulters. To penalize these defaulters GST Department has issued back to back notification number 74/2019-Central Tax, Notification No. 75/2019 – Central Tax and Circular No – 129/48/2019 –GST.

As you know, till date GST Dealers has to pay a late fee of Rs.20/- in case of Nil Return and Rs.50/- in case of other than nil return at the time of Late filing of GSTR-3B. There is no late filing fee in case of GSTR-1, due to which many dealers are not filing their GSTR-1 on a timely basis. Even some dealers and their Accountants do not know about GSTR-1 filing.

As per recently notified, notification no -75/2019 Dt-26 Dec 2019, the government has amended rule 36, sub-rule -4 and replaced 20% figure with 10% figure w.e.f 1^st January 2020.

According to this notification, now GST Registered dealers are restricted to take 10% Deemed Credit against missing invoices, which are not showing in their GSTR-2A. To avoid any hardship to genuine dealers, now the government is pushing all dealers to file their GSTR-1 on a timely basis so that corresponding credit is shown in GSTR-2A of purchasing dealers so that the cash flow of any dealer is not affected at any time.

Further, GST Department has inserted rule 86A and empowers authorized officer, when he has reason to believe that credit of input tax available in the electronic credit ledger has been fraudulently availed then for reasons to be recorded in writing, not allow debit of an amount equivalent to such credit in electronic credit ledger for discharging of any liability under section 49 or for claim of any refund of any unutilized amount.

E-Way Bill Blocking for None Filing of GSTR-1 – Recently, GST Department has stopped generation of E-Way bill due to the non-filing of GSTR-3B.

Now, they have inserted clause (c’) in rule 138 E “being a person other than a person specified in clause (a), has not furnished the statement of outward supplies for any two months or quarters, as the case may be”, then E-Way generation facility will be blocked.

As discussed above, now the focus of GST Department is timely filing of both GSTR-3B and GSTR-1. So that government revenue may be increased.

One Time Opportunity for GSTR-1 Defaulters – As per Notification No – 74/2019 – Central Tax, GST Department has given one time opportunity to all GSTR-1 Defaulters who have not file their GSTR-1 for the period pertaining between July 2017 to November 2019, then late fee payable under Section 47 shall stand waived off, if they file their pending GSTR-1 before 10^th January 2020, in otherwise case, if they file their GSTR-1 after this cutoff date, then they have to pay late fee on GSTR-1 as well.

Along with this, we should consider the Standard Operating procedure, to be followed by GST Officers in case of Non-Filers of Returns after the due date as prescribed in Circular No – 129/48/2019- GST Dated – 24^th December 2019. According to this SOP:-

1. A system-generated message would be sent to all the registered persons 3 days before the due date to nudge them about filing of the return for the tax period by the due date

2. If the dealer do not file their GSTR-3B on the due date, then again a reminder message/mail will be sent that they have not file their GST Return before Due date.

3. 5 days after the due date of furnishing the return, a notice in FORM GSTR-3A shall be issued electronically to such registered person who fails to furnish return under section 39, requiring him to furnish such return within fifteen days;

4. If the said return is still not filed by the defaulter within 15 days of the said notice, the proper officer may proceed to assess the tax liability of the said person, to the best of his judgment taking into account all the relevant material which is available or which he has gathered and would issue order under rule 100 of the CGST Rules in FORM GST ASMT-13.

5. In case the defaulter furnishes a valid return within thirty days of the service of assessment order in FORM GST ASMT-13, the said assessment order shall be deemed to have been withdrawn. However, if the said return remains unfurnished within the statutory period of 30 days from issuance of order in FORM ASMT-13, then proper officer may initiate proceedings under section 78 and recovery under section 79 of the CGST Act.

Author’s Remark – From the above discussion, it is concluded that the GST Department is now taking all strict action against the GST Defaulters. It is suggested that, if you are GSTR-1 Return defaulter at any stage, then you must correct this error as soon as possible and save the late filing fee.

Further, now start maintaining all prescribed records under GST Law and file your GST Returns on a timely basis, otherwise case penal action will be very harsh.

Source: – GST Notification no – 74/2019, 75/2019  and Circular No – 129/48/2019- GST

This article is for the purpose of information and shall not be treated as a solicitation in any manner and for any other purpose whatsoever. It shall not be used as a legal opinion and not be used for rendering any professional advice. This article is written on the basis of the author’s personal experience and provision applicable as on the date of writing of this article. Adequate attention has been given to avoid any clerical/arithmetical error, however; if it still persists kindly intimate us to avoid such error for the benefits of other readers.

The Author “CA. Shiv Kumar Sharma” can be reached at mail –shivsharma786@gmail.com and Mobile/Whatsapp – 9911303737/ 9716118384