Draft of the New GST Return Form Goes Live On the GST Common Portal

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

GST authority has come out with a draft of a simplified new version of the return form. This new return form is expected to be formally come into effect from July 2019.

Through this exercise, brought publically on Wednesday, the authority aims to receive maximum feedbacks on the user interface and its functionalities. Here, taxpayers can fill the template and mail the same.

This new GST Return will have Form GST RET-1 (Normal), Form GST RET-2 (Sahaj) and Form GST RET-3 (Sugam) on either monthly or quarterly basis along with the Annexure of Supplies (GST ANX-1) and the Annexure of Inward Supplies (GST ANX-2). This template can be easily accessed at www.demoofflinetool.gst.gov.in/instructions.

Two Major Categories:

Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has said that all stakeholders can share their comments on ‘feedback.newreturn@gstn.org.in’, the IT backbone of the GST administration. As on date, there are almost 1.21 crore assessees under the indirect tax regime that are clubbed mainly into two categories – composition scheme and others. Assessees those who have opted for ‘Composition Scheme’ are required to file the return on a quarterly basis, while others will have to file their returns every month. Moreover, all of them will have to file an annual return as well. Since the inception of the GST regime, over 27 crore returns have been filed.

The new filing system will contain more functionalities like drop-down menus, invoice upload, and upload of purchase register for matching with system-created inward supplies. The suppliers will be required to file a detailed return in Form GST RET-1. Businesses that supply only to consumers (B2C) will have to file return form ‘Sahaj’ that will include the details of outward supplies and inward supplies, attracting a reverse charge as well as a summary of the inward supplies for claiming the Input Tax Credit.

Furthermore, businesses that make supplies to both businesses (B2B) as well as to consumers (B2C), shall be required to file the return form ‘Sugam’ that includes a summary of supplies made and tax liability and summary of inward supplies for claiming the ITC, along with complete details of interest due and tax payment.

The new return filing format will replace the current requirement of filing final sales return GSTR-1 and summary sales return GSTR-3B. In July last year the GST Council decided that the simplified GST return forms — Sahaj and Sugam — would be implemented on a pilot basis from April 1^st, 2019, while mandatory filing throughout the country would kick in during the second quarter of fiscal 2019-20.

The government has already provided a prototype of ‘New Return Forms’ on the GST common portal to enable taxpayers and consultants to experience and learn the new functionality before it goes live. The portal also contains an option wherein taxpayers can share their feedbacks. This is a praiseworthy practice ever started by any Department before implementing a new compliance process. The prototype does not exercise any arithmetic calculations but provides a complete walk-through of the figures reported in the return forms.