New Delhi, Business Desk. The government has provided great relief to the traders. The government has extended the annual GST return filing date for the financial year 2018-19 to 30 September 2020. The Finance Ministry has issued this announcement by issuing a notification. The announcement comes after the nationwide lockdown extended to May 17, implemented to prevent corona virus infection. Significantly, the lockdown has been in force in the country since 25 March. However, Lockdown 3.0 has some leeway in terms of red, orange and green zones.
The GST return filing date has brought a lot of relief to businessmen with annual turnover of over five crore. Earlier, the finance minister had given time till May 5, 2020 to file the GST return for the month of March. The Finance Ministry has provided another relief to the traders. The Ministry has reduced the late fees for late returns. The ministry has reduced it to 9 percent, compared to 12 percent earlier.
According to the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance, people registered under the Companies Act 2013 can submit their GSTR-3B through Electronic Verification Code (EVC). Significantly, businessmen have been demanding exemption from GST for several days in view of the critical time of corona virus epidemic. At the same time, the government believes that waiving the entire tax will cause problems in the credit chain. According to sources, the government is also considering giving GST relief package to the areas most affected by this epidemic. These areas include tourism, aviation and restaurants.
