In a relief to taxpayers, the government on Thursday extended due dates for filing annual GST returns for 2017-18 to December 31 and for financial year 2018-19, to March 31 next year.
The dates for filing the reconciliation statement have also been extended accordingly.
In another relief, the government has decided to simplify the two GST forms by making various fields of these forms as optional, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said in a statement.
"The government has decided today (Thursday) to extend the due dates of filing Form GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and Form GSTR-9C (Reconciliation Statement) for 2017-18 to December 31, 2019 and for 2018-19 to March 2020," it said.
The previous deadline for filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for 2017-18 was November 30, 2019, while that for 2018-19 was December 31, 2019.
The date extension has been notified.
The CBIC has also notified amendments regarding the simplification of annual return and reconciliation statement forms.
A reconciliation statement allows taxpayers to not provide split of input tax credit availed on inputs, input services and capital goods for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
CBIC further said that with the simplifications in the two forms and extension of deadlines, "all the GST taxpayers would be able to file their annual returns along with reconciliation statement in time".
The government had received various representations regarding challenges faced by taxpayers in filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C, based on which the Government has "acted in a very responsive manner", the CBIC statement added.
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