GSTR 3B Late fees waived from July 2017 to Jan 2020?

The tweet by CBIC on 1-6-2020 around 6 p.m. sends a very strong positive message in trade circle that it might happen in next GST Council meeting that late fees levied on GSTR 3B from July 2017 to Jan 2020 might be waived off. We are keeping fingers crossed and certainly hope that in the Corona virus times where trade is facing huge difficulties some good news shall come.

This waiver of late fees on GSTR 3B is also a necessity since there are many tax payers whose registration was cancelled and they want to restore the registration. For restoration of registration all returns GSTR 3B and GSTR 1 should be filed. They shall be paying huge late fees inspite of the fact that they did not do any business.

There were genuine reasons for non-filing. It might be ignorance of law. In pre-GST regime there was no need to file nil return but in GST one should also file nil return.

We are putting exact language of press note for your reading.

PRESS NOTE

1. In the recent past tweets have been noticed by the government on the issue of waiver of late fee applicable on non-filing of GSTR 3B returns. The demands are largely for the waiver of late fee for the returns which were required to be filed from the beginning of GST ie August, 2017.

2. It may be noted that for helping the small businesses having turnover less than Rs 5 crore in the current situation arising out of Covid-19, Finance Minister had already announced extension of GST returns of February, March, April and May 2020 till June 2020. No late fee will be charged for this period.

3. The current requests for waiver of late fee pertain to the old period (August 2017 to January 2020). It may be appreciated that the late fee is imposed to ensure that the taxpayers file return in time and pay taxes on the amount collected from buyers and due to the government. This is a step to ensure that a certain discipline is maintained regarding compliance. Honest and compliant taxpayers would be discriminated negatively in the absence of such a provision.

4. In GST all decisions are taken by the Centre and the State with the approval of the GST Council. It would not be possible or desirable for the Central Government to unilaterally take a view on this issue and therefore, the trade is informed that the issue of late fee would be taken up for discussion in the next GST Council meeting.