In some much-needed reprieve for traders and small businesses facing difficulties in complying with filing GST returns, the Centre on Tuesday announced that it had decided to waive the penalty levied on account of delayed filing for the months of August and September.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the decision had been taken for the convenience of taxpayers and that the taxpayers who have paid the late fee while filing their GSTR-3B forms will have the amount credited to their ledgers.
"To facilitate taxpayers, late fee on filing of GSTR-3B for Aug&Sept has been waived. Late fee paid will be credited back to taxpayer ledger," Jaitley informed in a tweet.
The deadline for filing the initial returns in GSTR-3B for September under the Goods and Services Tax regime was October 20 midnight.
The step appears to have been taken in view of the inconvenience that traders and GST filers have faced due to technical glitches in the initial rollout phase of the comprehensive indirect tax.
On October 20, Chairman of GST Network Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that as many as 33 lakh GST returns for September were filed by noon that day. He had also informed back then that 75,000 sales data were being uploaded on the GSTN portal on an hourly basis.
In an interview to PTI, Pandey had said the GSTN system was stable and was handling data at just 30 per cent of its capacity with 20 lakh returns being uploaded in past two days.
"As many as 33 lakh returns have been filed till noon. The pace of filing is picking up with an average 75,000 returns being uploaded on an hourly basis. GSTN system is stable. We hope more people are able to file return within the due date," Pandey explained.
(With agencies)
