Simplified, single GST return to roll out in 6 months

The new system would be put in place within the next six months and another six months would be given to the taxpayers to make the complete transition, Jaitley announced after the 27th meeting of the GST Council here. 

“There will be a three-stage transition to the new system,” Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia explained. “In the first stage, the present system of filing of return GSTR 3B and GSTR 1 will continue for six months by which time, new return software would be ready.” 

The new system will be rolled out in the second stage and it will have facility for invoice-wise data upload.  “But during the first six months of its implementation, there will also be a facility for claiming provisional input tax credit on self declaration basis, as in case of GSTR 3B now,” Adhia said. 

“After six months of this phase, the facility of provisional credit will be withdrawn and input tax credit will be given to the buyer only if invoices are uploaded by the seller.” 

The council, at its 27th meeting, also referred the issue of incentivising digital payments to a group of state finance ministers after some states wanted a negative list. 

The government will take complete ownership of the GST Network (GSTN) by acquiring the 51 per cent equity of Rs 5.1 crore held by non-government institutions, the GST Council decided.

The 51 per cent equity will be acquired collectively by both Central and state governments following which they will hold 50-50 share in the private limited, not-forprofit company created to provide shared IT infrastructure and services for implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST). 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the collective share of the states will be pro-rata divided among them according to their contribution to the GST revenue. A majority of the GST processes including registration, filing of returns, payment of taxes, processing of refunds is IT driven and GSTN is handling large-scale invoice level data of lakhs of business entities including data relating to exports and imports.