Important Updates and Due Date Compliances under GST for May 2022

Please find below the important clarifications/ amendments issued by the Government on GST in April 2022 along with compliance timelines in May 2022

Compliance timelines

Updates in the month of April 2022

1. CBIC Notifies Rate of Exchange of Foreign Currencies w.e.f. 08.04.2022

CBIC has notified Rate of Exchange of Foreign Currencies against Indian Rupees with effect from 8 April, 2022 in supersession of the Notification No. 18/2022-Customs (N.T.), dated 17th March, 2022 for the purpose of conversion relating to import and export of goods.

(Notification No. 32/2022 - Customs (N.T.) dated the 7 April, 2022)

2. No detention of Goods in the course of transport on the ground of undervaluation

In compliance to the judgement of the Hon'ble High Court of Kerala in WP(C). No. 30798 of 2019(Y), Government of Kerala (GOK) has issued instructions stating that there should be no detention of Goods in the course of transport on the ground of undervaluation. GOK has issued instructions to its officers not to detain or issue any Show Cause Notice to the goods under transport or stored in parcel agencies, raising the sole reason for undervaluation of the goods compared to the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). It was noted by the Hon'ble Court that there is no provision under the GST Act that mandates that the goods shall not be sold at prices below the MRP.

The Government has directed its officers that if any undervaluation cases are suspected in such cases, the officers are to upload the details of such invoices using the option provided in the Mobile App and send a report to the Jurisdictional Officer, marking a copy to the Jurisdictional District Joint Commissioner. Further, the Intelligence Squads shall gather evidence to establish the case by collecting documents about the actual value of the supply. The Jurisdictional Officer concerned shall verify the same with the help of the report and the uploaded details. Thereafter, the Jurisdictional Officer of the taxpayer vertical or the Intelligence formation can take further action as provided in the law.

(Circular No. 6/2022, No. CT/6379/2021-SHQ(I) UNIT1, dated 06/04/2022)

2. New functionalities made available for taxpayers on GST portal from April, 2022 onwards

a. Enhancements made in the Search Taxpayer functionality - The Search Taxpayer link on the home page of GST Portal has been provided with an additional Help Link “Search Temporary ID” for searching taxpayers assigned with Temp. ID.

b. Integration of MMI (Map my India) in address field for Registration applications - The Geo coded addresses given by Map My India (MMI) have been integrated with the GST System for existing normal taxpayers and persons applying for registration as normal taxpayer in Form GST REG-01. This feature is also enabled for normal taxpayers while applying for core/ non-core amendment in their registration details involving change of address.

c. Facility for submitting consent for availing loan by MSME Taxpayers - A link has been provided in the File Returns Page under Returns Dashboard of the portal, where MSME taxpayers can give their consent for availing Mudra Loan upto Rs 10 lacs or MSME Loan upto Rs 5 Cr.

d. Offline utility for TDS/TCS credit received - An excel based TDS & TCS Credit Received offline utility has been made available on the portal for download. This utility will help the taxpayer to prepare the TDS & TCS Credit Received return in offline mode.

Apart from the above, there are some other functionalities too which have been made available for taxpayers on GST portal from April, 2022 onwards.

3. 2- Factor Authentication for e-Way Bill and e-Invoice System

To enhance the security of e-Way Bill/ e-Invoice System, NIC is introducing a 2-Factor Authentication for logging in to e-Way Bill/ e-Invoice system. In addition to username and password, OTP will also be authenticated for login.

On logging to e-Waybill System kindly go to Main Menu - 2 Factor Authentication and confirm the registration. Once confirmed, the system will ask OTP along-with username and password. The OTP authentication is based on individual user accounts. The sub users of GSTIN will have separate authentication depending on their registered mobile number in the e-Way Bill/ e- Invoice System. Once you have registered for 2 Factor authentication, then the same is applicable for both e-Way bill and e- Invoice system.

You may de-register this facility anytime using the link '2 Factor Authentication Registration / Deregistration'. This facility is presently being introduced on optional basis; however, in future it will be made mandatory.

You may download the entire advisory here

4. GSTR-1 enhancements & improvements

The following changes have been done in the GSTR-1/IFF:

• Removal of 'Submit' button before filing: The present two-step filing of GSTR-1/IFF involving 'Submit' and 'File' buttons will be replaced with a simpler single-step filing process. The upcoming 'File Statement' button will replace the present two-step filing process and will provide taxpayers with the flexibility to add or modify records till the filing is completed by pressing the 'File Statement' button.

• Consolidated Summary: Taxpayers will now be shown a table-wise consolidated summary before actual filing of GSTR-1/IFF. This consolidated summary will have a detailed & table-wise summary of the records added by the taxpayers. This will provide a complete overview of the records added in GSTR-1/IFF before actual filing.

• Recipient wise summary: The consolidated summary page will also provide recipient-wise summary, containing the total value of the supplies & the total tax involved in such supplies for each recipient. The recipient-wise summary will be made available with respect to the following tables of GSTR-1/IFF, which have counter-party recipients :

- Table 4A: B2B supplies
- Table 4B: Supplies attracting reverse charge
- Table 6B: SEZ supplies
- Table 6C: Deemed exports
- Table 9B: Credit/Debit notes

5. Advisory to composition taxpayers

Since FY 2019-20, composition taxpayers has to pay the liability through Form GST CMP-08 on quarterly basis while return in Form GSTR-4 is required to be filed on annual basis after end of a financial year.

In the past, lot of tickets were received on the Helpdesk for reducing the negative liability from the Negative Liability Statement and the same was being done. For convenience of the taxpayers, the amount available in negative liability statement have been debited for all taxpayers. It has been noticed that some taxpayers had utilised the amount available in negative liability statement for paying the liability to file statement in Form GST CMP-08 or GSTR-4 of subsequent financial year. In such cases, the amount utilised out of negative liability statement has been debited in the cash ledger. Though, such liability should have been paid by depositing the amount through challan but in some cases the amount had not been deposited by the taxpayers. The taxpayer who have deposited the amount in cash ledger, the debited amount has been adjusted whereas in case the amount of liability has not been deposited through challan, the balance in cash ledger becomes negative.

In such cases, the taxpayers are advised to deposit the past liability through challan of equal amount urgently. The details of the debit so made have been communicated to all such taxpayers through emails available on the portal. In case, the liability had been paid through adding in the next years' liability, the same can be claimed as refund through application in Form GST RFD-01.

6. Functionality of Annual Aggregate Turnover (AATO) computation for FY 2021-22

The functionality of AATO for the FY 2021-22 has now been made live on taxpayers' dashboards with the following features:

• The taxpayers can view the exact Annual Aggregate Turnover (AATO) for the previous Financial Year (FY).
• The taxpayers can also view the Aggregate Turnover of the current FY based on the returns filed till date.
• The taxpayers have also been provided with the facility of turnover updation in case taxpayers feel that the system calculated turnover displayed on their dashboard varies from the turnover as per their records.
• This facility of turnover update shall be provided to all the GSTINs registered on a common PAN. All the changes by any of the GSTINs in their turnover shall be summed up for computation of Annual Aggregate Turnover for each of the GSTINs.
• The taxpayer can amend the turnover twice within the month of May, 2022. Thereafter, the figures will be sent for review of the Jurisdictional Tax Officer who can amend the values furnished by the taxpayer wherever required.