Bhubaneswar: With the number of relaxations granted by the GST Council, June witnessed a marked improvement in GST collections in the state. The OGST collection for June 2020 is marked Rs 759.17 crore. Commissioner (CT & GST) SK Lohani reviewed the tax collections.
The OGST collected Rs 759.17 crore against the collection of Rs 804.49 crore during the corresponding period last year which is less by Rs 45 crore (-) 5.6%. However, the OGST collection of the 1st quarter of 2020-21 (Apr-June) registered a negative growth of 32.79% as the total collection could be Rs 1560.20 crore as against Rs 2321.39 crore collected during the same period in the preceding year.
Similarly, the Gross GST Collection (CGST, IGST, SGST & Cess) in the first quarter of 2020-21 (Apr-June) is Rs 5192.30 cr as against Rs 8019.44 cr during the preceding quarter of 2019-20 registering a negative growth rate of (-) 35.25%. However, the situation has improved in June, 2020 which registered a collection of Rs 2693.75 cr as against Rs 2923.47 Cr achieved during last June. Thus, the shortfall was only by (-) 7.86% during June 2020.
Further, imposition of nationwide lockdown to contain COVID-19 adversely affected timely filing of returns for the tax periods of February, March and April 2020 also. Realising the difficulties of the taxpayers, the government waived the late fee for the delay in return filing and also allowed late payment of tax due without interest/reduced interest @ 9%.
Similarly, taxpayers having turnover up to Rs 5 crore were required to file returns for March tax period by July 5, 2020 and for April tax period by July 9, 2020 with no interest. Failure to file GSTR 3B by the above mentioned dates will attract interest @ 9% immediately after the due dates. All taxpayers are hereby, advised to file returns by the due date to avoid payment of interest.
In a major relief to GST taxpayers, the government has further decided to cap the maximum late fee for Form GSTR-3B at Rs 500 per return for the tax period July 2017 to July 2020.The reduced fee will be levied only if returns are filed before September 30, 2020.
It has also notified that there will be NIL late fees if there is no tax liability. In order to further simplify the process of returns filing, GSTN has already introduced filing of monthly and quarterly sales statements (GSTR 1) and tax return (GSTR 3B) through SMS for those taxpayers having NIL liability.
