Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (‘CBIC’) has on September 30 issued number of notifications to relax or defer certain GST provisions. Some of the important changes worth noticing are, deferment of annual returns for FY 2018-19, relaxation in e-invoicing provisions for a month, deferment of dynamic QR Code for B2C transactions, and extension of exemption to service of transportation of export goods by aircraft/vessel.
Annual returns for FY 2018-19 deferred
Due date of GSTR-9/ GSTR-9C for the Financial Year 2018-19 has been once again extended. As per Notification No. 69/2020–CT, dated September 30, 2020 which amends Notification No. 41/2020-Central Tax, these returns for FY 2018-19 can now be filed till October 31, 2020.
E-invoice relaxed for one month
Provisions relating to e-invoicing are effective from October 1, 2020 in respect of specified taxpayers for B2B transactions. According to the latest Notification No. 70/2020-Central Tax, dated September 30, 2020, the taxpayers whose aggregate turnover exceeds INR 500 crores in any preceding Financial Year from 2017-18 onwards are required to comply with e-invoice provisions. Further, the e-invoice provisions are applicable in case of exports also. Amendments have been made for this purpose in Notification No. 13/2020-Central Tax.
Further, observing that some of the taxpayers are still not ready to implement the provisions, the CBIC has relaxed the implementation of e-invoicing provisions for a month subject to conditions.
According to the Press Release dated September 30, 2020, in case of invoices raised during October, 2020, if Invoice Reference Number (IRN) is obtained from the Invoice Reference Portal (IRP) within 30 days of date of invoice then such invoices will be deemed valid, and penalty leviable under Section 122 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 will be waived. The press release illustrates that e.g., invoice dated October 03, 2020 is issued without obtaining IRN but IRN is obtained on or before November 02, 2020, then Rule 48(4) is deemed complied and penalty under Section 122 stands waived. It may be however be noted that this relaxation is applicable only for invoices raised in the month of October 2020, and no such relaxation would be available for the invoices issued from November 1, 2020.
Certain amendments have also been made in Rules 46, 48 and 138A of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, in respect of e-invoicing provisions.
Dynamic QR Code for B2C transactions deferred
Taxpayers whose aggregate turnover exceeds INR 500 crores in any preceding financial year from 2017-18 onwards are required to comply with B2C Dynamic QR Code. The CBIC has now extended the date of applicability of these provisions from October 01, 2020 to December 01, 2020.
Exemption for service of transportation of export goods by an aircraft/vessel, extended
Service of transportation of goods by an aircraft or vessel from a customs station of clearance in India to a place outside India, was exempted till September 30, 2020. The said exemption has now been extended till September 30, 2021. Amendments in this regard have been made in Notification No. 12/2017-Cental Tax (Rate) by Notification No. 4/2020-Central Tax. Consequential amendments have also been made in notifications relating to Integrated GST and Union Territory GST.