37^th Meeting of the GST Council, Goa 20 September, 2019

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PRESS RELEASE

(Law and Procedure related changes)

The GST Council, in its 37^th meeting held today at Goa, recommended the following:

1. Relaxation in filing of annual returns for MSMEs for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 as under: 
   1. waiver of the requirement of filing FORM GSTR-9A for Composition Taxpayers for the said tax periods; and
   2. filing of FORM GSTR-9 for those taxpayers who (are required to file the said return but) have aggregate turnover up to ₹ 2 crores made optional for the said tax periods.
2. A Committee of Officers to be constituted to examine the simplification of Forms for Annual Return and reconciliation statement.
3. Extension of last date for filing of appeals against orders of Appellate Authority before the GST Appellate Tribunal as the Appellate Tribunals are yet not functional.
4. In order to nudge taxpayers to timely file their statement of outward supplies, imposition of restrictions on availment of input tax credit by the recipients in cases where details of outward supplies are not furnished by the suppliers in the statement under section 37 of the CGST Act, 2017.
5. New return system now to be introduced from April, 2020 (earlier proposed from October, 2019), in order to give ample opportunity to taxpayers as well as the system to adapt and accordingly specifying the due date for furnishing of return in FORM GSTR-3B and details of outward supplies in FORM GSTR-1for the period October, 2019 - March, 2020.
6. Issuance of circulars for uniformity in application of law across all jurisdictions:
   1. procedure to claim refund in FORM GST RFD-01A subsequent to favourable order in appeal or any other forum;
   2. eligibility to file a refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A for a period and category under which a NIL refund application has already been filed; and
   3. clarification regarding supply of Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS services) (in supersession of Circular No. 107/26/2019-GST dated 18.07.2019) being made on own account or as intermediary.  
7. Rescinding of Circular No.105/24/2019-GST dated 28.06.2019, ab-initio, which was issued in respect of post-sales discount.
8. Suitable amendments in CGST Act, UTGST Act, and the corresponding SGST Acts in view of creation of UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
9. Integrated refund system with disbursal by single authority to be introduced from 24^th September, 2019.
10. In principle decision to link Aadhar with registration of taxpayers under GST and examine the possibility of making Aadhar mandatory for claiming refunds.
11. In order to tackle the menace of fake invoices and fraudulent refunds, in principle decision to prescribe reasonable restrictions on passing of credit by risky taxpayers including risky new taxpayers.  

Note: The recommendations of the GST Council have been presented in this release in simple language only for immediate information of all stakeholders. The same would be given effect through relevant Circulars/Notifications which alone shall have the force of law.

GST return reforms: MSME annual return relief, deferred new-return rollout, and ITC restrictions for non-compliant suppliers. Recommendations provide compliance relief and procedural adjustments: waiver of FORM GSTR-9 for composition taxpayers and optional GSTR-9 for eligible small taxpayers for specified years; a Committee to simplify annual return and reconciliation forms; deferment of the new return system to April 2020 with transitional due dates for GSTR-3B and GSTR-1; restrictions on input tax credit where suppliers fail to furnish outward-supply statements; issuance of uniform circulars on refund procedure and ITeS supply characterisation; rescission of a circular on post-sales discounts; integrated refund disbursal by a single authority; and in-principle Aadhaar linkage for registration and targeted restrictions on credit for risky taxpayers.