No alteration in deadline of filing annual GST return

“All the taxpayers are requested to file their Annual Return (Form GSTR-9) at the earliest to avoid last minute rush,” the Finance Ministry said in a clarification issued here.

According to the clarification, the Ministry said information contained in form GSTR-2A as on May 1, 2019 shall be auto-populated in Table 8A of Form GSTR-9 and Input Tax Credit on inward supplies shall be declared from April 2018 to March 2019 in Table 8C.

The Ministry added that many taxpayers have reported a mismatch between auto-populated data and the actual entry in their books of accounts or returns. One common challenge reported by taxpayer is in Table 4 of Form GSTR-9 where details may have been missed in Form GSTR-1 but tax was already paid in Form GSTR-3B and therefore taxpayers see a mismatch between auto-populated data and data in Form GSTR-3B.

“It may be noted that auto-population is a functionality provided to taxpayers for facilitation purposes, taxpayers shall report the data as per their books of account or returns filed during the financial year,” it said.

The government also advised taxpayers to fill in their entire credit availed on import of goods from July 2017 to March 2019 in Table 6(E) of Form GSTR-9 itself.

Earlier, the government had extended the deadline for filing annual return for the first year of GST till June 30 to give businesses more time to file the return.