GST Simplified To Just 1 Filing Per Month; Private Firms Kicked Out Of GSTN!

The powerful Goods and Services Tax Council has finally heard the pleas of businessmen and small traders, dealers who faced massive inconvenience due to the complex nature of GST filing, which was termed as a mental torture as well.

In a sweeping change, GST Council has simplified the overall GST filing to just one filling per month. This will provide a great relief to all those businesses, who generate lots of invoices and challans in a year.

Besides, some other major changes were also announced in the overall GST process.

In a related news, GST Council has kicked out private players from GSTN, and have made it a 100% Govt. entity.

Can we term this as a failure of private companies in running the show?

GST Simplified!

In the latest meeting, GST Council has admitted that the current GST filing is a bit tiresome, and have decided to simplify it.

Considering that 2019 General Elections is just a few months away, this can be a major populist decision.

From now on, taxpayers are required to file just one return in a month.

6 months have been provided to make the transition from the current system to the new system of 1 return/month. Hence, the current system of GSTR3B and GSTR 1 will continue for next 6 months.

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said,

“It will take about six months for GSTN to prepare for it, so for that period the current arrangement of GSTR3B and GSTR 1 will continue. This will be the first phase of transition where the current system will continue for the next six months,”

Composition dealer and zero transaction dealers can continue filing every 3-months.

Other Major GST Changes Announced

• To optimally manage the IT load on the system, different tax filing dates would be announced, based on the volume of transactions. Hence, after 6 months, not every businessman needs to file on the same date.
• A unidirectional flow of invoices submitted or uploaded by the seller in a course of time would be a valid document for availing input tax credit. It will save a huge amount of time for those sellers, who are generating lots of invoices per day.
• Simplified user-interface proposed for the tax filing system

You can find the entire list of changes here.

Private Players Kicked Out of GSTN!

Meanwhile, GST Council has decided that the Centre and the State Govts will acquire the 51% stake held by private players, and make GSTN as 100% Govt. entity.

Right now, GSTN’s 49% share is held by Govt (24.5% by Center and 24.5% by States); and the remaining 51% is held by private entities: LIC Housing Finance, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.

Rs 5.1 crore would be paid to the private entities for acquiring their state.

We had earlier reported that GSTN may be made 100% Govt. owned, very soon.

After the recent breakdowns in the GSTN, the blame game has started between Govt. officials and private players on the issue of service delivery.

We will keep you updated, as we receive more inputs.