GSTR-3B Filing Date Extended For Flood-Hit Parts Of Tamil Nadu, Says Finance Minister

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that people filing the GSTR-3B form in flood-affected parts of Tamil Nadu will be offered a relief of one week.

They now have to file the return by Dec. 27, Sitharaman told the upper house of Parliament on Wednesday.

She was answering queries during the passing of the Central Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2023.

According to existing norms, the due date for filing the GSTR-3B form is the 20th day of the following month.

However, due to the impact of Cyclone Michuang in Chennai, particularly in the Ambatur industrial area, the minister said she had received representations for a deadline extension on the monthly return filing.

"Because of the request that had come in already (for) Chennai and now the four districts in southern Tamil Nadu, we have extended the deadline. That which has to be done on the 20th can now be done till the 27th; we have extended the deadline by one week," she told the Parliament.

The central government's share of Rs 900 crore (out of the total of Rs 1,200 crore) in the State Disaster Response Fund for FY24 was already made available, she said.

"...as reported by the state government, the balance available with the state SDRF account as of April 1, 2023 was (Rs) 813.15 crore. The first installment of Rs 450 crore of the central share of SDRF for 2023–24 has already been released earlier. The second installment of Rs 450 crore has also been released on Dec. 12, 2023. So, the central government is not in any way delaying or forgetting to provide timely relief," she said.

The ministry had ensured that the four public sector general insurance companies, including United India Insurance, were sent to conduct an on-ground survey, Sitharaman said.

"They're sending us an almost daily report on how much they've covered and the Secretary of the Department of Financial Services is closely monitoring just so that people who have to get insurance money for the loss that they've been put to are getting it in time... Insurance companies and their agents are literally on the ground doing the job."

Speaking on some of the issues raised in the Rajya Sabha during the discussion, she said that the Authority for Advance Ruling and risk profiling of registrants was an ongoing effort of the GST Council.

"...risk profiling before input tax credit is given are all issues on which the discussions have happened in the GST Council. Some steps have been taken to address them and these are not as if it is addressed once and never again this topic comes up for discussion again. Some topics keep coming as we go along..."

According to her, the number of grievance tickets that were raised has fallen to four per 10,000 returns filed. In 2017, it used to be 67 tickets for every 10,000 returns.

"There has also been consistent growth in the monthly return filing, which has reached now 90% by the end of this month; this is as against the 71% which was the case three years ago. In the current financial year, the revenue has grown to an average of Rs 1.66 lakh crore per month and with a growth of about 11.9% over the GST collection of Rs 1.49 lakh crore per month in the financial year 2023. So, the growth is steady and consistent..."

Sitharaman highlighted that taxpayers are also offered the benefit of auto-populated returns and filing nil returns via SMS.