The Government, vide Notification No. 19/2021- Central Tax, dated 01.06.2021, had provided relief
to the taxpayers by reducing / waiving late fee for non-furnishing FORM GSTR-3B for the tax periods
from July, 2017 to April, 2021, if the returns for these tax periods are furnished between 01.06.2021
to 31.08.2021. The last date to avail benefit of the late fee amnesty scheme, has now been
extended from existing 31.08.2021 to 30.11.2021. [Refer Notification No. 33/2021- Central Tax,
dated 29.08.2021].
Based on the multiple representations received, Government has also extended the timelines for
filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration to 30.09.2021, where the due date
of filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration falls between 01.03.2020 to
31.08.2021. The extension would be applicable only in those cases where registrations have been
cancelled under clause (b) or clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 29 of the CGST Act. [Refer
Notification No. 34/2021- Central Tax, dated 29.08.2021].
The filing of FORM GSTR-3B and FORM GSTR-1/ IFF by companies using electronic verification
code (EVC), instead of Digital Signature certificate (DSC) has already been enabled for the period
from 27.04.2021 to 31.08.2021. This has been further extended to 31st October, 2021. [Refer
Notification No. 32/2021- Central Tax, dated 29.08.2021].
The extension of the closing date of late fee amnesty scheme and extension of time limit for filing
of application for revocation of cancellation of registration will benefit a large number of taxpayers,
specially small taxpayers, who could not file their returns in time due to various reasons, mainly
because of difficulties caused by COVID-19 pandemic, and whose registrations were cancelled dueo the suo motoe. Taxpayers are requested to avail the benefit of these extensions at the earliest to avoidl ast minute rush.
