Deadline to file GSTR-2, GSTR-3 for July extended

In a move to give relief to GST payers, the government on Monday extended the deadline to file GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 for July to November 30 and December 11 respectively.

Form GSTR-2 reflects purchases made by a business whereas GSTR-3 is a combination of sales and purchases. The deadline to file GSTR-2 was Tuesday, whereas the last date for filing GSTR-3 was November 10.

"To facilitate trade, the last date for filing GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 for July 2017 has been extended to November 30 and December 11 respectively," a government tweet said.

"A notification in this regard will be issued to facilitate about 30.81 lakh taxpayers for filing GSTR-2 for July," the Finance Ministry tweeted.

The decision comes after the Group of Ministers headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi met on October 28 in Bengaluru to review the issues faced under the Goods and Services Tax filings.

GST expert Pritam Mahure told IANS: "This extension was necessitated as many technical glitches were cropping up during GSTR-2 filing. In days to come, the government should have well thought-out strategy to address GST compliance issues."

Partner at Deloitte India M.S. Mani said: "The extension of timelines to file both GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 by another month could enable a significant improvement in the compliance behavior of taxpayers as they now have more time to file match input tax credits, take remedial action for mismatches and enable accurate filing of final returns for the month of July."

The challenges faced by some of the taxpayers in dealing with mismatches in GSTR-2 would hopefully get resolved in November, Mani added.

--IANS

mm/nir/mr