GST Return revision option may be allowed from April 2025 [Know More]

The government is considering permitting the filing of updated or revised GST returns, which is intended to assist taxpayers while also reducing litigation under the indirect tax regime. According to the concept, taxpayers will be eligible to correct their filings, including tax computation.

There is currently no provision for filing updated GST returns, except for minor modifications to invoice details uploaded to the portal. This facility has been demanded by industry, and a petition in this respect is currently before the Supreme Court.

The service is already provided through income tax. “This will add significantly to the ease of filing returns and reduce litigation where the purpose is not to evade tax and a taxpayer has either misunderstood or missed out on a detail,” the government official said.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is thrashing out the finer details, which will next be taken up by the GST Council‘s law committee and eventually by the council itself.

The facility might be introduced for yearly returns first, then expanded to quarterly returns. Because a considerable upgrade to the GST Network is required, implementation would take at least 8-9 months after GST Council approval.

Because the present service provider’s contract with Infosys expires on September 30, 2024, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN)  will delegate the duty to the next technology vendor for the GST portal. “If everything goes as planned,” a GSTN official remarked, “we will be able to implement the new facility by April 2025.”

Just as strong compliance remains the backbone of GST, the GST return forms must be updated regularly to reflect the changing financial situation, including modifying the annual return form to reflect the amended input tax credit reporting adopted in monthly returns beginning in August 2022.

According to experts, hundreds of thousands of GST-registered individuals and GST-registered dealers frequently make normal human errors, such as calculation problems and counting discrepancies, which can be addressed if a revised return option is made available alongside pre-filled reports.

While the plan would be beneficial to businesses, it is critical that the data be collected in real-time and validated, that businesses be able to update all fields in the auto-filled forms, and that tax payment computations be based on the data populated by businesses.