GST Filing Ban Alert: File Returns Before 3-Year Deadline Ends

The Government of India, States and Union Territories has issued an advisory dated June 18, 2025, stating that according to the amendments brought in by the Finance Act, 2023 (Act No. 8 of 2023) dated March 31, 2023, and made applicable from October 1, 2023, through Notification No. 28/2023-Central Tax dated July 31, 2023, a very significant rule has been introduced for all GST taxpayers.

The rule is that from now onwards, taxpayers will not be permitted to file their GST returns after three years from the due date of that particular return. Meaning, if the due date for filing the GST return has already been exceeded by three years and taxpayers are yet to file it, then filing will be permanently blocked for that return. This three-year time limit applies to the following sections of the GST law:

• Section 37: Deals with GSTR-1 (Details of Outward Supplies)
• Section 39: Covers GSTR-3B, GSTR-4, GSTR-5, etc. (Monthly/Quarterly Returns for payment of tax)
• Section 44: Covers the Annual Return (GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C)
• Section 52: Covers Tax Collected at Source (TCS) returns like GSTR-8.

This means all the essential GST forms, such as GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-4, GSTR-5, GSTR-5A, GSTR-6, GSTR-7, GSTR-8, GSTR-9, and GSTR-9C, will now be considered under this three-year limit rule.

According to the information provided, this limit will be effective from the July 2025 tax period on the portal of the GST portal. Meaning, the GST portal will automatically stop accepting GST returns after August 01, 2025, that are older than three years from their due date.

An official advisory was already issued by the GSTN on October 29, 2025, to make taxpayers aware in advance. The advisory recommended all taxpayers file their pending returns that are nearing to cross their three-year deadline.

Here’s a simple list of the latest GST returns that will get blocked starting 1st August 2025, if they’re not filed by then:

These GST returns will not be permitted to be filed on the GST portal after July 31, 2025, as their three-year limit will be exceeded by then.

Hence, all taxpayers are strongly recommended to check and balance their GST records immediately. If there are any returns that have not been filed and are nearing the 3-year mark, they must be filed before July 2025, or else the taxpayer will completely lose the chance to file them later.