As a trade facilitation measure and in order to further ease the process of doing business, the GST Council in its 42nd meeting held on 05.10.2020, had recommended that registered person having aggregate turnover up to Rs 5 crore may be allowed quarterly filing of GSTR-3B along with monthly payment of tax, with effect from 01.01.2021 which is referred to as Quarterly Return Monthly Payment of Taxes (QRMP) Scheme.
The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has now issued new frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) on the QRMP Scheme. For ready reference of our readers the new FAQs are given below:
Ans: Quarterly Return, Monthly Payment of Taxes (QRMP) Scheme is a scheme to simplify compliance for small taxpayers. Under this scheme, taxpayers having an aggregate turnover at PAN level up to Rs. 5 crore can opt for quarterly GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filing. Payment can be made in the first two months by a simple challan in FORM GST PMT-06. For the ease of taxpayers, system has assigned quarterly frequency to small taxpayers automatically.
Ans: Taxpayers eligible for the simplified compliance scheme were assigned quarterly frequency by the GST system. All taxpayers were informed regarding the frequency assigned to them by e-mail and SMS.
Ans: For the purpose of determining the eligibility for QRMP, the turnover was determined on the basis of the values declared by taxpayers in Table-3.1 of GSTR-3B (except inward supplies attracting reverse charge) for the Financial Year 2019-20. If a component of the turnover, like exempted or non-GST turnover, was not declared by a taxpayer in GSTR-3B or was declared in next financial year, then the turnover computed by the system for such taxpayers could be less than Rs. 5 crore. Such taxpayers may have been assigned to QRMP on the basis of values declared by them in GSTR-3B. Such taxpayers are advised to opt-out of scheme for quarter Apr-Jun’21 by 30 th April 2021.
Ans: At the time of assigning the frequency by the system, system considered the aggregate turnover of the taxpayer and the filing status of FORM GSTR-3B for the month of October 2020. If the said GSTR3B was not filed till 30th November 2020, the taxpayer were assigned to monthly frequency. The system allows the taxpayer to opt for QRMP scheme only if the last applicable return in FORM GSTR-3B, whose due date is over, is filed.
Illustration:
If the taxpayer is trying to opt for QRMP Scheme on 25th Feb’21, from Quarter Apr-Jun’21 onwards then it will be allowed only if the return in form GSTR-3B is filed for the month Jan’21.
If the taxpayer is trying to opt for QRMP Scheme on 19th Feb’21, from Quarter Apr-Jun’21 onwards then it will be allowed only if the return in form GSTR-3B is filed for the month Dec’20.
Ans: The last date to choose or change the filing frequency for the quarter of January to March 2021 was 31st January, 2021. After 31st January 2021, the filing frequency cannot be changed for the quarter January to March 2021. However, for the quarter of April to June 2021, taxpayers may change their filing frequency from quarterly to monthly from 1st February, 2021 to 30 th April, 2021. It may be noted that profile selection is not a recurring requirement every quarter. Once a frequency has been opted for, it is applicable for all future periods unless changed further.
Ans: Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) is an optional facility made available as per Rule-59(2) of the CGST Rules, 2017. This is provided for those quarterly taxpayers who want to pass on input tax credit (ITC) to their recipients (buyers/customers) in first two months of a quarter. Since IFF is an optional facility, it poses no additional compliance burden. It is a facility for those quarterly filers who intend to pass ITC to their recipients in first two months of the quarter. It may be noted that since IFF is an optional facility, IFF for a month will expire after the due date of 13th of next month, and cannot be filed after this date.
Ans: Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) is an optional facility to those taxpayers who want to pass on input tax credit (ITC) to their recipients (buyers/customers) in first two months of a quarter. Those taxpayers who do not have to pass credit to their recipients need not file IFF in the first two months of the quarter. They may declare their outward supplies in the quarterly FORM GSTR-1. It may be noted that since IFF is an optional facility, IFF for a month will expire after the due date of 13th of next month, and cannot be filed after this date.
Ans: In first two months of the quarter, payment of liability can be made by either of the following two methods:
a. Fixed Sum Method: Portal will generate a pre-filled challan in Form GST PMT-06. The system generated pre-filled challan in this case is commonly also known as 35% challan.
b. Self-Assessment Method: The actual tax due is to be paid through challan, in Form GST PMT-06, by considering the tax liability on inward and outward supplies and the input tax credit available for the period as per law.
The due date for making payment by challan is 25th of the next month.
Ans: In fixed sum method, the taxpayer is required to pay a system generated challan in the first two months of a quarter. The system generated pre-filled challan in this case is commonly also known as 35% challan. If fixed sum method is opted for by the taxpayer & there is no ITC to be passed in that month, then except for paying system generated challan, no other compliance requirement is there in the first two months of the quarter.
Ans: Under the fixed sum method, depending on the filing frequency in the previous quarter, the 35% challan is calculated by either of the following methods:
Method (a):
An amount which is equivalent to the amount paid as tax from electronic cash ledger in their GSTR-3B return for the last month of the immediately preceding quarter, where the GSTR-3B return was furnished on monthly basis.
OR
Method (b):
35% of amount paid as tax from electronic cash ledger in their return for the preceding quarter, where the GSTR-3B return was furnished on quarterly basis; or
It may be noted that since QRMP scheme is introduced in January 2021, all taxpayers were monthly filers in December 2020. Hence, the 35% challan will be populated as per method (a) for the quarter of January to March 2021 for quarterly filers.
Illustration:
Method (a):
Taxpayer paid liability by cash amounting to Rs. 5500/- [IGST: Rs. 2,000/-, CGST: Rs. 1,000/-, SGST: Rs. 2,500/-] in monthly GSTR-3B for December 2020. The 35% challan generated as per the fixed sum method for January to March 2021 quarter will be of Rs. 5,500/- with the same head-wise break-up.
Method (b):
Taxpayer paid liability by cash amounting to Rs. 7000/- [IGST: Rs. 1,000/-, CGST: Rs. 2,000/-, SGST: Rs. 4,000/-] in quarterly GSTR-3B for January to March 2021. The 35% challan generated as per the fixed sum method for April to June 2021 quarter will be of Rs. 2,450/- [IGST: Rs. 350/-, CGST: Rs. 700/-, SGST: Rs. 1,400/-].
Ans: Supplies made to unregistered persons (also called B2C supplies) are not required to be declared in IFF. These may be declared in FORM GSTR-1 for the quarter.
Ans: Taxpayers will be provided with a draft GSTR-3B, which will contain the details of the liability to be paid by taxpayers in the quarterly GSTR-3B. This will be prepared on the basis of the supplies declared in FORM GSTR-1 for the quarter. It will also contain data from the optional IFF, if any is filed in either of the first two months of the quarter. The said system computed values will also be autopopulated in quarterly GSTR-3B.
Ans: In first two months of the quarter, no declaration pertaining to ITC is required to be made. The available ITC for the entire quarter will be made available by the system in quarterly FORM GSTR-2B. This quarterly facility will be in addition to the FORM GSTR-2B being made available on monthly basis, which can still be used for doing self-assessment.
Q: How do I again become a Monthly filer?
Ans: Filing frequency either monthly or quarterly can be selected as per timelines mentioned in below table.
Kindly navigate : Services > Returns > Opt-in for Quarterly Return
Effective Quarter(1) | Period during which filing frequency can be selected (2) | Last date for selecting the filing frequency(3) |
January–February– March# | 1st November to 31st January | 31st January |
April – May – June | 1st February to 30th April | 30th April |
July – August – September | 1st May to 31st July | 31st July |
October – November – December | 1st August to 31st October | 31st October |
# For the quarter of January to March 2021, this option was available from 5th December 2020 to 31st January 2021.
Also Read: Detailed FAQs on QRMP Scheme
For more details regarding the QRMP scheme, kindly refer the following Notifications & Circular:
- Notification No. 82 /2020 – Central Tax dated 10th Nov. 2020
- Notification No. 85 /2020 – Central Tax dated 10th Nov. 2020
- Circular No. 143/13/2020 – GST dated 10th Nov. 2020
Click to watch the webinar on QRMP scheme in English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil & Telugu.
Click to watch the webinar on IFF & 35% challan in English & Hindi.
Click to get more details and steps in FAQs & Manual.
Click to read already issued advisory.
READ / DOWNLOAD NEW FAQs:
Follow us for free tax updates : facebook Twitter
***
Subscribe our portal and get FREE Tax e-books , quality articles and updates on your e-mail.
Resolve your GST queries from national level experts on GST free of cost.
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.