Kindly refer to our article published yesterday wherein we had informed our readers that two fresh GST Notifications have been issued viz Notification No. 67/2020 – Central Tax and Notification No. 68/2020 – Central Tax both dated 21.09.2020 by which benefit of waiver / reduction of late fee in respect of twin GST returns i.e. GSTR-4 and GSTR-10 has been conferred onto the tax payers.
In this regard it is important to note that Corrigendum has been issued by Government in respect of both the above Notifications on 22.09.2020. While there is no practical impact due issue of Corrigendum to Notification No. 68/2020 – Central Tax as same is pertaining to correcting the typing / clerical error.
However the Corrigenda to Notification No. 67/2020 – Central Tax has lead to a material change impacting the tax payers adversely. Lets discuss the Corrigendum and impact thereof in suceeeding para.
Waiver / reduction of late fee in late filing of Form GSTR-4 by composition tax payers restricted till 31st March, 2019 (Corrigenda issued)
CBIC vide Notification No. 67/2020 – Central Tax dated September 21, 2020, had waived the late fees payable u/s 47 of the CGST Act, in excess of Rs. 250/- for CGST (considering similar notification under SGST Acts total late fee in excess of Rs 500/- will be waived) for the registered taxpayers having liability and fully waived for NIL taxpayers in Form GSTR-4 for the quarters from July, 2017 to March, 2020, if the return is filed between September 22, 2020 to October 31, 2020.
Now Corrigendum to Notification No. 67/2020 – Central Tax has been issued wherein three changes have been made , two of which are not material. However one change wherein the month of March, 2020 has been replaced with March, 2019, is critical and impacts the tax payers.
Due to above Corrigendum , now the waiver / reduction of late fee for GSTR-4 will only be effective for FY 2017-18 and 2018-19 and not for 2019-20, whereas as per the original Notification all the there periods were covered for the waiver / reduction of late fee.
The above Corrigenda will impact Composition suppliers as the extended timeline for filing of GSTR-4 for FY 2019-20 was August,31, 2020 which has already elapsed. Accordingly in case such suppliers have not filed thier GSTR-4 by said date, they would have to pay heavy late fee while filing GSTR-4 now ( Rs 10,000/-) as same will be levied from the original due date which was 30.04.2020, instead of Rs 500/- as per the original Notification No. 67/2020 – Central Tax dated September 21, 2020.
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Frah Saeed is a law graduate specializing in the core field of indirect taxes and is the Co-founder of taxwallah.com. She has authored many publications on GST and is into full-time consultancy on GST to big corporates. She as a part of taxwallah.com heads a team comprising of Chartered Accountants and Advocates and plays a key role in our mission to disseminate GST knowledge to all.
