On 4 May 2018, The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council accepted a new simplified return that would require a taxpayer to file only one return every month and set a period of six months for the transition to take place
The Finance Secretary said that, “It will take about six months for GSTN to prepare for it, so for that period the current arrangement of GSTR3B and GSTR 1 will continue. This will be the first phase of transition where the current system will continue for the next six months.”
Key elements of the new return design, among others, include filing of monthly returns, unidirectional flow of invoices uploaded by the seller on anytime basis, simple return design and easy IT interface for B2B dealers and no automatic reversal of input tax credit from buyer on non-payment of tax.
All taxpayers with a few exceptions like composition dealer should file monthly returns. Return filing dates shall be staggered based on the turnover of the registered person to manage load on the IT system. Composition dealers and dealers having nil transaction shall have facility to file quarterly return.
There will be unidirectional flow of invoices uploaded by the seller on anytime basis during the month which would be the valid document to avail input tax credit by the buyer. Buyer would also be able to continuously see the uploaded invoices during the month. There will not be any need to upload the purchase invoices also. Invoices for B2B transaction need to use HSN at four digit level or more to achieve uniformity in the reporting system.
