Clearmytax.in Editorial Team
Due to the outbreak of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) across many countries of the world, including India and challenges faced by tax payers in meeting compliance requirements under various provisions of the CGST Act, the Government has announced various relief measures relating to statutory and regulatory compliance matters across sectors.
To provide the relief, various notifications have also been issued by the Government on 03-04-2020 out of which one of the notification, is Notification No. 35/2020-CT dated 03-04-2020 issued under Section 168A of the CGST Act,2017 for extending due date of compliance which falls during the period from 20-03-2020 to 29-06-2020 to 30-06-2020. However said notification states that the above extended time limit shall not be applicable in respect of certain provisions of CGST Act.
As per notification no. 40/2017- Central Tax (Rate) dated 23.10.2017, a registered supplier is allowed to supply the goods to a registered recipient (merchant exporter) at 0.1% provided, inter-alia, that the merchant exporter exports the goods within a period of ninety days from the date of issue of a tax invoice by the registered supplier.
Now the tax payers were under dilemma as to whether the extension of time limit as provided in terms of notification No. 35/2020-Central Tax dated 03.04.2020 would also be applicable to the export of goods by merchant exporters.
In this regard Circular No. 138/08/2020-GST dated 6th May, 2020 has been issued wherein it has been stated as under:
i. Vide notification No. 35/2020-Central Tax dated 03.04.2020, time limit for compliance of any action by any person which falls during the period from 20.03.2020 to 29.06.2020 has been extended up to 30.06.2020, where completion or compliance of such action has not been made within such time.
ii. Notification no. 40/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 23.10.2017 was issued under powers conferred by section 11 of the CGST Act, 2017. The exemption provided in notification No. 35/2020-Central Tax dated 03.04.2020 is applicable for section 11 as well.
iii. Accordingly, it is clarified that the said requirement of exporting the goods by the merchant exporter within 90 days from the date of issue of tax invoice by the registered supplier gets extended to 30th June, 2020, provided the completion of such 90 days period falls within 20.03.2020 to 29.06.2020.
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.
