43rd GST council meeting was held on 28.05.2021 wherein various important decision were taken where majority were related to granting relief related to Covid and pandemic.
In the above meeting council also talked about GST annual return and reconciliation statement which is commonly known as GST audit.
In this regard council has recommended the following points:
“Simplification of Annual Return for Financial Year 2020-21:
i. Amendments in section 35 and 44 of CGST Act made through Finance Act, 2021 to be notified. This would ease the compliance requirement in furnishing reconciliation statement in FORM GSTR-9C, as taxpayers would be able to self-certify the reconciliation statement, instead of getting it certified by chartered accountants. This change will apply for Annual Return for FY 2020-21.
ii. The filing of annual return in FORM GSTR-9 / 9A for FY 2020-21 to be optional for taxpayers having aggregate annual turnover upto Rs 2 Crore;
iii. The reconciliation statement in FORM GSTR-9C for the FY 2020-21 will be required to be filed by taxpayers with annual aggregate turnover above Rs 5 Crore.”
As discussed Finance Act, 2021 had already scrapped certification of reconciliation statement in GSTR 9C by Chartered Accountant and now GST council has also commented on the same that same shall be applicable on GSTR 9C for FY 2020-21.
Hence, GSTR 9C for FY 2019-20 will be the last GSTR 9C which will be certified by Chartered Accountant. Although this will reduce the responsibility of CA but at the same time the work would remain the same as the form has not been scrapped just the certification has been changed.
Also, council has recommended to simplify the annual return and the turnover limits for annual return which were already notified for FY 2018-19 and 2019-20 has now been extended to FY 2020-21.
This were all the recommendations by council relating to annual return and GST audit/ reconciliation statement.
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