26th Meeting of GST Council: GSTR 3B, GSTR 1 Filing Extended For 3 More Months

The 26^th meeting of the GST Council was held on Saturday in New Delhi. The following recommendations were made by the GST Council:

Return filing system:

The present system of filing of GSTR 3B and GSTR 1 is extended for another three months i.e., April to June, 2018 till the new return system is finalized. A new model was discussed extensively and the Group of Ministers on IT has been tasked to finalize the same.

Reverse charge mechanism:

The liability to pay tax on reverse charge basis has been deferred till 30.06.2018. In the meantime, a Group of Ministers will look into the modalities of its implementation to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the trade and industry.

TDS/TCS:

The provisions for deduction of tax at source (TDS) under Section 51 of the CGST Act and collection of tax at source (TCS) under Section 52 of the CGST Act shall remain suspended till 30.06.2018. In the meantime, the modalities of linking State and Central Governments accounting system with GSTN will be worked out so that seamless credit is available to the registered traders whose tax is deducted or collected at source.

Grievance Redressal Mechanism:

GST implementation Committee (GIC) has been tasked with the work of redressing the grievances caused to the taxpayers arising out of IT glitches.

Extension of available tax exemptions on imported goods:

Further, sending a strong positive signal to the exporting community, the GST Council decided to extend the available tax exemptions on imported goods for a further 6 months beyond 31.03.2018. Thus, exporters presently availing various export promotion schemes can now continue to avail such exemptions on their imports up to 01.10.2018, by which time an e-Wallet scheme is expected to be in place to continue the benefits in future.

In a related development which would benefit the exporters, the Council reviewed the progress in grant of refunds to exports of both IGST and Input Tax Credit.  The Council appreciated that the pace of grant of IGST refund has picked up. Thereafter, the Council directed GSTN to expeditiously forward the balance refund claims to the Customs/Central GST/State GST authorities, as the case may be, for their immediate sanction and disbursal.

The permanent solution agreed to by the Council was to introduce an e-Wallet scheme w.e.f. 01.04.2018. The e-Wallet scheme is basically the creation of electronic e-Wallets, which would be credited with notional or virtual currency by the DGFT. This notional/virtual currency would be used by the exporters to make the payment of GST / IGST on the goods imported/procured by them so their funds are not blocked.