Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Monday said that the decision of the GST Council to make returns for small taxpayers on a quarterly basis rather than monthly basis will provide a major relief to small taxpayers. With this the number of returns will reduce to 8 from the earlier 24 from January 1, 2021.
"From the first of January onwards, the taxpayers whose annual turnover is less than Rs 5 crores will not be required to file monthly returns i.e GSTR 3B and GSTR1. They will only file quarterly returns," Pandey said. However, such taxpayers will make payments through challan every month.
But the Council has increased the compliance burden for large taxpayers. They will now have to provide HSN code up to 6 digits while small taxpayers will have to provide HSN code up to 4 digits for B2B transactions from April 1. In certain classes of goods where the government feels the need for closer tracking, HSN codes will be of 8 digits which will be notified by the government.
Other than this, refunds will be given only in bank accounts which are validated with PAN and Aadhaar details from January 1.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier said that this year's collection of Rs 20,000 crore as compensation cess will be disbursed to states tonight. Sitharaman also said that Rs 24,000 crore Integrated GST will also be released to those states that received less amount earlier due to some anomalies, Sitharaman also said at the 42nd GST Council meeting. The states will receive the funds by the end of next week, she added.