Govt. of India has refused to delay the implementation of GST, and July 1st has been declared as the official date for GST rollout pan India.
However, GST Council has understood that some firms may not be ready for GST as of now and acknowledging this issue, a special grace period of two months has been announced for filing returns under GST.
Besides, a special mid-night session has been planned inside the Parliament on the night of June 30th, during which, GST would be officially rolled out at exactly 00.01 AM on July 1st.
Firms Can File Returns 2 Months Late
States such as West Bengal, along with industry lobby groups such as Assocham had requested Finance Ministry to delay the rollout of GST, as most of the SMEs and small businesses are still underprepared for the same.
Understanding these concerns, GST Council has provided a grace period of 2 months for all companies in India.
For these two months, companies are allowed to use the form GSTR-3B for filing returns, which will only have a summary of outward and inward supplies, which needs to be submitted by 20th of the next month.
Besides, companies can now file returns under GST for July by September 5th, and for August by September 20th. Form GSTR-1 needs to be used for this filing.
Finance Ministry has clarified that there won’t be any late fees for this late filing of returns.
Finance Ministry said, “No late fees and penalty would be levied for the interim period. This is intended to provide a sense of comfort to the taxpayers and give them an elbow room to attune themselves with the requirements of the changed system”
Rejecting calls for delaying GST, the Ministry said in a statement, “When you go in for reforms, you must never blink. If you blink you get derailed,”
Special Midnight Session For GST Rollout
We have learnt that a special mid-night session would be conducted on the night of June 30th, which would be used to officially roll out GST on July 1st, at exactly 00.01 AM.
All Chief Ministers would be invited to the session; and besides PM Modi, the stage will also have former PMs Dr Manmohan Singh and HS Deve Gowda. The main stage would be erected in the Central Hall of the Parliament.
Once GST is implemented, India will create World’s largest single economic zone for paying same indirect taxes, beating the entire US and Europe. It is estimated that the GST regime will increase our GDP by 2 percentage points.
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