Relief given under GST Amnesty Scheme

GST Amnesty Scheme: Big relief to small businessmen, government give relief of exemption in a late fee and penalty late fee relief has been given in May 2021 and onwards as well. A cap of Rs 500 has been imposed for NIL returnees. For those whose turnover is up to Rs 1.5 crore, a penalty of Rs 2000 will be imposed.

What are the benefits of the GST Amnesty Scheme?

GST Amnesty Scheme: In the meeting of GST Council i.e. Goods and Services Council (GST Council) held recently, big relief has been given to small and medium businessmen. This meeting was held on 28 May, in which the Amnesty Scheme has been announced regarding GST Return Filing. All pending GSTR-3B returns from July 01, 2017, to April 2021 have been included in the purview of this scheme.

All GST registered businessmen having GST registration online have to file a GSTR-3B return. Those who have not filed returns from the beginning till now have been given a big relief by the government. Compliance window has been opened for the taxpayers availing the facility of this amnesty scheme which will be open for three months i.e. from 1st June to 31st August 2021. In the meantime, such businesses can file their outstanding GST returns. Experts say that this is a big relief for small and medium businessmen. The number of such traders is about 89 percent.

What is the exemption given under the amnesty scheme?

Experts say that GST has been implemented since the year 2017. And if the government is giving exemption to the businessmen who have not filed GST returns since the beginning. If NIL GST returns filing are made for such traders, then a cap of Rs 250 has been imposed in CGST and Rs 500 in SGST. On the other hand, if tax is made, then this cap is 1000 rupees. That is, you can file your return according to the cap of Rs 1000 per return. This amnesty has been given to the businessmen.

What happens if amnesty is not given?

Under the amnesty scheme given by the government, if there is no cap, then the penalty that is made will be many times more. Under the GST regime, the penalty is collected from taxpayers for not filing GST returns on time. If the tax liability of a taxpayer is NIL i.e. zero and he has not filed the return, then a penalty of Rs 20 per day will be applicable.

On the other hand, if tax is made, then such debtors would have to pay a penalty of Rs 50 per day. If you add according to this, then imagine how many penalties would have to be paid. However, there is a better chance for businessmen to redeem this amnesty scheme.

What will happen in the future regarding the penalty amount?

Apart from amnesty, some more caps have been put in place as to how many penalties can be imposed now. Late fee relief has been given in May 2021 and onwards as well. A cap of Rs 500 has been imposed for NIL returns. For those whose turnover is up to Rs 1.5 crore, a penalty of Rs 2000 will be imposed. Those with a turnover of 1.5 crores to 5 crores will incur a penalty of Rs 5000. And if the turnover is above 5 crores, then the penalty of 10 thousand rupees has been fixed.