Agencies

The Goods and Services Tax Council on Friday decided to further ease compliance burden of businesses by providing relief on late free and interest payable on late payments.It reduced late fee and interest for those with tax liabilities and waived off late fee completely for those with no tax liabilities.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that GST collections had fallen to about 45%, aggravating the problem of compensation to states, even as states demanded they be funded through market borrowing. The Council will meet again in July.“For all those who have no tax liabilities but have not filed their returns between July 2017 and January 2020 there will be zero late fees,” she further added.

“For people who have tax liability, maximum late fee for non-filing of GSTR-3B returns for period July 2017 - January 2020 has been capped to Rs 500,” she added.

Companies having no tax liability will not be fined any late fee if they have not filed returns, since July 1, 2017. Those with tax liabilities will now be able to pay a late fee of Rs.500 per month per return far lower than Rs.10,000 per month.