Central Tax No. 02/2023: No Late Fee of GSTR 4 for Nil GST Payers

According to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs ( CBIC ), dealers, are opted under the composition scheme under GST. And being late for filing their GSTR-4 are eligible for a full late fee waived. If they do not have any tax liability.

A composition dealer is a small taxpayer that has to pay a fixed percentage of their turnover as GST instead of paying GST at the regular rate. This scheme is beneficial for small taxpayers with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 1.5 crore. A dealer who chooses the composition plan is required to pay GST once a year, by the 30th of April following a fiscal year.

The notification further stated that:-

The government has stated that if a registered person fails to submit their GST return on Form GSTR-4 by the deadline for the fiscal quarters ending in July 2017 and March 2019 or the fiscal years ending in 2019–20 and 2021–22, but files it between 1st April 2023 to 30th June 2023, they will not have to pay a late fee if the total amount of central tax payable in the return is nil.

The late fee payable under section 47 of the Act shall be waived if it is more than Rs. 250, but less than or equal to Rs. 250, will still have to be paid. This will be added as the seventh condition to notification No. 73/2017-Central Tax dated 29th December 2017, issued by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) of the Government of India.

To make GST compliance simpler, the following changes were made:

• A maximum of Rs. 500 will be charged as a late fee for filing GSTR-4 between April 1 and June 30, 2023, for the fiscal years 2019–20 to 2021–22.
• For FY 2017–18 to 2021–22, the late fee for Form GSTR-9 filings made after April 1 but before June 30 of that year would be limited to Rs. 20,000.
• Turnover-based late fees for GSTR-9 will become effective starting in the fiscal year 2022–23- Rs. 50 per day, up to 0.04% of turnover, for up to 5 crores in revenue and up to 0.04% of the turnover, or Rs. 100 per day, for turnover between Rs. 5 and Rs. 20 crores
• Revenue beyond 20 crores- Rs. 200 per day, up to 0.5% of revenue A maximum of Rs. 1,000 will be charged as a late fee for filing Form GSTR-10 between April 1 and June 30, 2023.