GST return filing will be made very simple: Goyal

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its meeting on July 21, is expected to undertake a massive correction in the present cumbersome return filing process under the new indirect tax regime.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said, "The return filing is going to be so easy that all present day complaints will be irrelevant after July 21."

He said that he has already undertaken the stakeholders' consultation on making GST a friendly tax regime.

The government has, so far, held 37 consultations and has got 61 suggestions. Before the next GST Council meeting, Goyal is expected to visit major towns and cities to understand traders problems related to GST. In the series of next meetings, he will be visiting Mumbai on Sunday.

The GST council is likely to finalise the form for simplified return filing. In the last meeting on May 4, it was decided that the current system of filing summary returns (GSTR-3B) and final sales returns (GSTR-1) will continue for six months.

After that, a new return software would be ready; and in the second phase, the new return would have the facility for invoice-wise data upload and for claiming input tax credit on self-declaration basis, as in the case of GSTR-3B now.

However, according to Goyal, the pace of return filing will be simplified further and without any delay.

To a question on rationalisation of GST rates, Goyal said that the Council has already reduced rates on 328 items and there is a possibility of further rate easing. “It has to be in balance with revenue considerations,” Goyal said.

The average monthly collection under the GST has been close to Rs 90,000 crore. However, in April, collections touched a record Rs 1.03 lakh crore.