RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GST

[Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal]

According to latest NSO forecast, Indian economy is now expected to grow @ 6.4% in FY 2025 and if so, it will be slowest in last four years owing lower production and investments. This will be lower than 6.6% as per RBI’s estimates. On the other hand, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have projected the Indian Economy to grow by 7%. However, there numbers may turnaround in next three months. Moreover, these are based on information upto October, 2024 and extrapolation.

With just three weeks to go in Union Budget 2025-26, Central Government has appointed Mr. Tuhin Kanta Pandey as new Revenue Secretary replacing Mr. Arunish Chawla, who was appointed only few days back.

Ministry of Finance has issued an order allocating charges among the members of CBIC with Mr. Shashank Priya, Member in-charge of GST, Central Excise and Service Tax.

MoF has also issued a Notification designating the Additional / Joint Director (Intelligence) of DGGSTI Head Quarters as Nodal Officer for the purpose of Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in terms of section 14A(3) of IGST Act, 2017 relating to specified actionable claims supplied by persons located outside taxable territory.

Union Government has filed a review petition before Supreme Court in the Safari Retreats matter wherein Apex Court had remanded the case back to Orissa High Court which involved taking input tax credit on construction cost of mall meant for commercial renting space. The GST Council in its 55^th meeting recently recommended for a retrospective amendment to section 17 of CGST Act, 2017 to nullify the impact of Apex Court verdict. With this, Government has played its cards well - by one, filing a review petition and two, by way of GST Council’s recommendation paving way for amendment in CGST Act, 2017 in the forthcoming budget. Still, till any decision is out, Orissa High Court is free to take an independent view on the same.

In an important development, Supreme Court admitted a petition and now will review its our judgment on Service Tax applicability on salary reimbursements for secondment of employees.

Also, Supreme Court has stayed show cause notices issued to 48 companies for demand of GST against online gaming companies till 18 March, 2025. This is an interim relief for online gaming companies which had received SCN’s alleging GST evasion of about Rs. 1.10 lakh crore and equal amount of penalties.

GSTN portal suffered technical glitches on 10.01.2025 and as such, taxpayers found it difficult to file returns on time. As such, CBIC has extended due dates to file returns by two days. Due dates for filing GSTR-1 and for GSTR 3B has been extended to 12.01.2025. While due date for filing GSTR-7 and GSTR-8 has been extended to 12 January 2025, due date for GSTR-5 and GSTR-6 has been extended to 15^th January, 2025.

Extension of due dates for filing GST returns

Return	Relating to	To be filed by	Tax period	Original due date	Extended upto	Source / N. No. / date
GSTR-1	Filing of GST outward supplies (monthly)	Regular taxpayer	December-2024	11.01.2025	13.01.2025	01/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-1	Filing of GST outward supplies (QRMP)	Quarterly return filers	October to December- 2024	13.01.2025	15.01.2025	01/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-3B	Filling of summary return and payment of taxes (monthly)	Regular Tax Payers	December 2024	20.01.2025	22.01.2025	02/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-3B	Filling of summary return and payment of taxes (Quarterly)	Quarterly return filers	October to December- 2024	20.01.2025	24.01.2025*	02/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-5	Filling return by Non-Resident taxable persons	Non-Resident Taxable person	December 2024	13.01.2025	15.01.2025	03/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-6	Filing of  return by Input Service Distributor (ISD)	Input Service Distributors	December 2024	13.01.2025	15.01.2025	04/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-7	Filing of TDS return	Tax Deducted at source	December, 2024	10.01.2025	12.01.2025	05/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025
GSTR-8	Filing of TCS return	E-commerce operator	December, 2024	10.01.2025	12.01.2025	06/2025-CT dated 10.01.2025

^* For states Chhattisgarh, MP, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa Kerala, TN, Telangana, AP and Union Territories of Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar or Lakshadweep. Other states, other than mentioned above the revised due date is 26.01.2025

Appointment of Nodal Officer u/s 14A(3) of IGST Act, 2017

• Central Government has designated Additional / Joint Director (Intelligence) of  Directorate General of GST Intelligence Headquarters (DGGI-Hq), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs in Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, as the Nodal Officer for the purposes of the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in respect to section 14A(3) of Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
• Section 14A(3) of IGST Act 2017 relates to specified actionable claims supplied by persons located outside taxable territory.

(Source: Notification GST Integrated GST (IGST) dated 06.01.2025)

GSTN Advisory for Rectification Application

• GSTN has issued an Advisory on availability of a new functionality on the Portal for taxpayers to file an application for rectification of ITC related orders issued under section 73/ 74. It contains step-by-step process for filing application.
• CBIC had vide Notification No. 22/2024-CT dated 08.10.2024 notified that any registered person against whom any order confirming demand for wrong availment of ITC, on account of contravention of provisions of section 16(4) of the CGST Act had been issued, but where such ITC is now available as per the recently inserted section 16(5)(6) of the CGST Act, would now be able to file an application for rectification of such demand orders.
• The taxpayers can file application for rectification of such orders post login, by navigating Services > User Services > My Applications, selecting "Application for rectification of order" in the Application Type field, clicking on the NEW APPLICATION button and entering details in the displayed fields.
• A hyperlink has also been provided on the Portal to download the proforma in Annexure A in word format, required to be uploaded after entering details of the demand order of the ITC wrongly availed on account of contravention of section 16(4) of the CGST Act, now eligible as per section 16(5)/(6) of the CGST Act, while filing the application for rectification.
• For details, refer:

https://tutorial.gst.gov.in/downloads/news/step_by_step_process_filing_rectification_application.pdf to view detailed step by step process on filing of rectification application.

(Source: GSTN Advisory dated 07.01.2025)

GSTN Advisory on Phase- III for HSN Codes

• GSTN has advised the implementation of Phase- III regarding Table 12 of GSTR-1 and GSTR-1A from the return period January, 2025, i.e., mandatory mentioning of HSN codes in GSTR-1 & GSTR-1A.
• In phase-III:

• Manual entry of HSN has been replaced by choosing correct HSN from given Drop down.
•  Table-12 has been bifurcated into two tabs- namely B2B and B2C, to report these supplies separately.
• Validation regarding values of the supplies and tax amounts involved in the same, have also been introduced for both the tabs of Table-12.

• However, in initial period these validations have been kept in warning mode only, which means failing the validation will not be a blocker for filling of GSTR-1 & 1A.

(Source: GSTN Advisory dated 09.01.2025)