In a bid to provide relief to coronavirus hit businesses, the finance ministry had on May 1 notified nine changes in the compliance requirements under the GST regime. This includes extension of the deadline for filing GST returns, reduced quantum of late fee, and even late fee waiver in some cases for the months of March and April 2021.

The government’s decision came a day after the GST collection has set a new high at Rs 1.41 lakh crore for April. Under the reduction in rate of interest, the Ministry of Finance has rolled out concessional rates of interest in lieu of the normal rate of interest of 18% per annum for delayed tax payments.

Under a waiver of late fee, registered persons having aggregate turnover above Rs 5 crore, late fee has been waived for 15 days in respect of returns in FORM GSTR3B furnished beyond the due date. For registered persons having aggregate turnover up to Rs 5 crore, late fee waived for 30 days in respect of the returns in FORM GSTR-3B furnished beyond the due date for tax periods March, 2021 and April, 2021. The government has announced extension of due date for filing GSTR-1, IFF, GSTR-4 and ITC-04.

Moreover, certain amendments have also been announced in CGST Rules apart from a relaxation in availing of ITC and an Extension in statutory time limits under section 168A of the CGST Act. For registered persons having aggregate turnover above Rs 5 crore, a lower rate of interest of 9% for the first 15 days from the due date of payment of tax and 18% thereafter, for the tax payable for tax periods March 2021 and April 2021, payable in April 2021 and May 2021 respectively, has been notified.

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