Businesses are likely to get extra time for filing their
Goods and Services Tax (GST) annual return and audit report for FY19, the first full year of the indirect tax reform.
Federal indirect tax body, the
GST Council,
is likely to extend the due date from 31, December to enable businesses
to comply as companies are currently busy with meeting the deadline for
FY18, the
first year of
GST roll out, said a person privy to discussions in the Council.
Businesses
have time till 30 November to file the annual return and audit report
for the July-April period of FY18, for which they were given three
extensions already considering the numerous changes in rules and the
difficulties faced by them in shifting to a new technology reliant
indirect tax regime.
Industry experts said that an extension will
be of immense help as without it, they will have to finalise annual
returns and the audit report for FY19 within one month of having filed
the same for the previous fiscal.
However, the extension of the
due date for FY19 may be announced only closer to the date, not at the
forthcoming meeting of the GST Council on 20 September, said the person
quoted above, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The government does
not want to pre-empt the preparations that businesses are currently
doing to meet the due date.
GST implementation has been marked by
continued extensions of due dates for filing various return forms as the
new technology driven indirect tax regime brought into its fold a large
number of small firms. The Council has progressively liberalised the
compliance regime, especially for the small businesses, which now have
to pay only quarterly returns though they pay taxes on a monthly basis.
The central government expects the new tax regime may take some more
time to stabilise. “The full benefits of GST reforms should start
accruing from FY21 and completely stabilise thereafter to ensure
sustainable fiscal path," the finance ministry had noted in the FY20
union budget documents.
According to Archit Gupta, founder and
chief executive officer of ClearTax, a technology firm offering services
to tax payers, the focus of the authorities at present should be on
improving compliance for FY 18. Once that is out of the way, they could
focus on the next financial year. “This way, learnings from the first
year can be used to improve compliance for the years to follow.
Simplification of GSTR-9 (annual return) is critical at this point, we
hope in the next council meeting this is considered and changes are
made," said Gupta.