Govt holds back April GST numbers; announcement likely by May 5

The government has deferred the announcement of monthly GST collection numbers till at least May 5, 2020 as it has allowed delayed filing of GSTR 3B returns for 15 days from the due date of April 20. The monthly GST collection numbers for a particular month are announced on the 1st of next month.

The government on March 24 had announced several measures to ease the compliance burden on taxpayers given the outbreak of Coronavirus. One of the announcements was no interest for filing GSTR 3B returns for February-April 2020 within 15 days from the due date. The due date for March filings was April 20. Therefore, taxpayers can file returns till May 5 without having to pay an interest for late payment at the reduced rate of 9 per cent.

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Sources in the Finance Ministry said that the GST collection numbers can be announced by May 5 if the date for late payment (without interest) is not further extended. Though there are chances that the date might be extended beyond May 5.

It is likely that due to the 15-day additional window for filing returns without paying any interest, many taxpayers have not filed their returns due to which GST collections numbers for March transactions were very low till today. It is said that the GST collections so far has been just around Rs 30,000 crore against an average monthly collection of around Rs 1 lakh crore last financial year.

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