New Delhi: The Goods and Service Tax Council is likely to announce an amnesty scheme on late fee in GST return filing in the upcoming meeting on May 28.
Informed sources told Ziraat Times that the scheme will cover all the pending GSTR-3B returns since the launch of GST on July 1, 2017, till the month of April this year. All businesses registered under GST are required to file GSTR-3B, which is essentially a summary return containing the log of all monthly inward and outward supplies.
As per the proposal, for all the taxpayers who did not have any tax liability and have to file zero return a flat late fee of Rs 500 will be imposed under the amnesty window.
Additionally, a late fee of Rs 1,000 will be charged from the taxpayers who were liable to pay tax during the period between July 2017 and April 2021. It may be noted that to get the benefits of the scheme, the taxpayers will have to file the return within the compliance date decided by the Council.
Under the GST regime, massive penalty is imposed for non-furnishing of returns. In case of zero tax, late fee of Rs 20 per day is charged, while others have to pay a late fee of Rs 50 per day per return. The late fee is capped at Rs 10,000 per return per month.
Late fee has been one of the predominant issues voiced by taxpayers on the social media for the last couple of months now. Ahead of this year’s Budget, the small businesses had even held a nationwide protest on the issue of high late fee.
