GST Council Announces One-Time Amnesty Scheme for cancelled GST Numbers

Today in New Delhi, the 49th GST Council convened under the chairmanship of Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Federal Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs. Shri Pankaj Chaudhary, the Union Minister of State for Finance, the Finance Ministers of the States and UTs (with legislatures), and senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the States and UTs also attended the meeting.

The GST Council announced extension of the deadline for applications to revoke registration cancellations and grant one-time amnesty in prior cases. The Council has suggested changing both section 30 of the CGST Act of 2017 and rule 23 of the CGST Regulations of 2017 to make the provisions that the time frame for submitting a request to revoke or cancel registration be extended from 30 to 90 days;

Further, the Commissioner or an officer designated by him in this regard may extend the aforementioned time frame for an additional term not to exceed 180 days if the registered person fails to seek for such revocation within the said 90-day window.

The Council has also suggested that in the past instances where registration was canceled due to failure to file returns, but an application to revoke the cancellation could not be submitted within the time frame specified in section 30 of the CGST Act, an amnesty may be provided by allowing such persons to submit their application for revocation by a specific date, subject to certain conditions.