The Finance Ministry has extended the last date for availing the Goods and Services Tax amnesty scheme or GST amnesty Scheme where taxpayers pay a reduced fee for late filing of monthly returns, till November 30, 2021.

“The Government, vide Notification No. 19/2021- Central Tax, dated 01.06.2021, had provided relief to the taxpayers by reducing / waiving late fee for non-furnishing FORM GSTR-3B for the tax periods from July, 2017 to April, 2021, if the returns for these tax periods are furnished between 01.06.2021 to 31.08.2021,” the Ministry said in a statement.

The late fee amnesty scheme refers to reduction or waiver of late fee for not filing Form GSTR-3B for the tax periods from July 2017 to April 2021. Taxpayers originally had to file their GST between June 1, 2021 and August 31, 2021 to benefit from this amnesty scheme. This deadline has now been extended to the end of November.

The Finance Ministry said that the extension was given on the basis of several representations received from establishments, who requested for more time to do the needful.

The due date of filing the application for revocation of cancellation of registration, has been extended till September 30, 2021. The actual date for it was August 31, 2021. The extension however would be applicable only in those cases where registrations have been cancelled under clause (b) or clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 29 of the CGST Act.

The Finance Ministry further said that based on the multiple representations received, it has also extended the timelines for filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration to September 30, 2021, where the due date of filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration falls between March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021.
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“The extension of the closing date of late fee amnesty scheme and extension of time limit for filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration will benefit a large number of taxpayers, specially small taxpayers, who could not file their returns in time due to various reasons, mainly because of difficulties caused by COVID-19 pandemic, and whose registrations were cancelled due to the same,” the Finance Ministry said in its statement.
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Taxpayers are requested to avail the benefit of these extensions at the earliest to avoid last minute rush, it further added.