Govt extends July, August deadline for filing GST returns: These are the new dates

Government has extended the deadline to file Goods and Service Tax (GST) return for the month of July and August. The deadline is applicable for all the three categories. So the sales return or GSTR-1 for July will have to be filed by September 10 instead of September 5 earlier while purchase returns or GSTR-2 will have to be filed by September 25 instead of September 10 earlier. Subsequently GSTR-3, a match of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2, now has a new deadline of September 30, in place of September 15.

"GIC (GST Implementation Committee) decides to extend date of GSTR 1, GSTR 2 and GSTR 3 for the month of July to 10th, 25th and 30th September 2017, respectively," the government said in a tweet.

For the month of August, the date for filing GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 has been extended to October 5, October 10 and October 15 from earlier September 20, September 25 and September 30, respectively. Apart from a relief in tax filing, businesses have also been allowed relaxation for payment of taxes for the months of July and August.

According to reports, the government took this step following crashing of GST portal due to heavy traffic. This is the second time that the GST portal faced glitches and forced government to extend the deadline for filing of returns. The extension will also give more time to businesses to understand the various nuances of GST return which is being filed for the first time.

So far taxes worth Rs 92,283 crore have been collected for July in the initial returns filed in form GSTR-3B. Of the 59.57 lakh businesses, as many as 38.38 lakh taxpayers or 64.42 per cent of the total businesses that had registered in July filed their GST returns.

Lately, the government also waived late payment fees for delayed filing of GST returns and allowed businesses to correct errors in the initial form while submitting final returns by September 5. It also allowed entities who had not filed GSTR-3B  to file the final returns in GSTR-1, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 and pay taxes.