GST Council may simplify returns filing

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is likely to discuss the proposals on simplification of GST returns filing in its meeting scheduled early next month.

The government is keen on a single stage returns filing to replace the current three-stage filing process. Instead of having GSTR 1, 2 and 3, taxpayers may only be required to file GSTR 1 for good and services. The Council is likely to take up the proposals in its meeting on March 10. The meeting will take up the Group of Ministers' (GoM) recommendation on rolling out the e-way bill on tracking the movement of goods worth over Rs 50,000 from April 1. The meeting will be held through video conferencing.

The GSTN GoM led by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi on Saturday agreed that the forms should be simplified and ideally be one return every month with more deliberations required on it.

"There are different views on whether the provisional credit should be allowed and linked to tax payment," Modi said. The Council will take further view on it.

Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani had suggested an easier process for input credit. The buyer would receive credit for tax paid on inputs based on the seller uploading invoices and buyer acknowledging it. Currently, the buyer has to wait for the seller to file returns in order to claim input tax credit. The government will also look at the frequency of returns filing.

"The Council may also discuss having different dates for filing of returns for small and large taxpayers," GST network chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said. The committee led by Pandey on simplification of GST returns filing has suggested different dates for filing of returns to reduce the load on IT system.

As many as 56.7 lakh returns were filed in January while 7.28 crore returns have been filed since the implementation of GST last year.