As per Section 44(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 read with Rule 80(1) of the CGST Rules, 2017, every registered person is required to furnish an annual return for every financial year in FORM GSTR-9. For composition suppliers the annual return is to be furnished in FORM GSTR-9A.
In order to give effect to the decision taken in the 37th GST Council Meeting, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (‘CBIC’) had issued a Notification No. 47/2019 – Central Tax, dated 09-10-2019 for making it optional for registered persons whose aggregate turnover in a financial year does not exceed Rs 2 crore to file annual returns for FYs 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
The Notification also stated that if the return is not furnished before the due date, it shall be deemed to be furnished on the due date.
In order to provide clarification with regard to optional filing of annual returns in GSTR 9 / 9A, the CBIC issued a Circular No. 124/43/2019, dated 18-11-2019, in order to bring uniformity in the operationalisation of the legal provisions. The Circular provided clarifications which are as under:
- It is clarified that taxpayers, may, at their own option file GSTR 9 for the relevant financial year before the due date. After the due date, the GST portal shall not permit furnishing of GSTR 9 for the FY 2017-18 and 2018-19. Similar clarification is also provided for the taxpayers under the Composition scheme.
- Further, it is also clarified that if any registered taxpayer, during course of reconciliation of their accounts, notices any short payment of tax or availed inadvertent ITC, they may pay the same through GST DRC 03.
From above it is evident that filing of GSTR-9 was made optional for taxpayers having aggregate turnover upto Rs 2 crore. However this relief was available only for FY 2017-18 and 2018-19 as per Notification No. 47/2019 – Central Tax, dated 09-10-2019 and accordingly from FY 2019-20 all the tax payers were required to furnish the annual returns in accordance with Section 44(1) of the CGST Act,2017.
Optional filing of GSTR-9 – Relief extended till 2019-20:
The Central Government vide Notification No. 77/2020 – Central Tax dated 15-10-2020 has amended Notification No. 47/2019 – Central Tax, dated 09-10-2019 whereby the benefit of optional filing of annual return for registered persons whose aggregate turnover in a financial year does not exceed Rs 2 crore, has been extended for FY 2019-20 as well.
This means that such taxpayers are not required to furnish annual return for 2019-20 and they can choose to not to file such return. However, if they want they can definitely file the same.
For ready reference of our readers the Notification is given below:
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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.
