STAGGERED RETURN Filing of GSTR-3B

The finance ministry vides a Press Release altered the last dates of filing the GSTR-3B, the return form depicting the details of Sales made during a month in a summarized form. Earlier, the GST return filing system faced problems of bandwidth in managing the burden with respect to bulk filings which leads to the site crashing on the last days of filing, now in order to solve this issue the stakeholders have come up with the solution of STAGGERED RETURN filing.

Currently, the structure of filing calls for the filing of GSTR-3B return for every type of taxpayer by the 20th of the successive month.

With the latest Press Release, the due dates have been divided into 3 broad categories as under:

Category 1:
The taxpayers having an annual turnover of Rs 5 crore and above in the previous financial year shall continue to be 20th of the month successive month just as before.

Category 2:
From specified 15 States/UTs that are Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the taxpayers who are having annual turnover below Rs. 5 crores in the previous financial year, the last date will be the 22nd of the successive month without late fees.
(Which means they are given additional 2 days)

Category 3:
Further, the taxpayers from other specified 22 States/UTs – Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha having annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in previous financial year, the last date will be 24th of the successive month without late fees.
(Which means they are given additional 4 days)

Why this step:
The government has implemented this step taking into consideration the different return filing issues on portal faced by the taxpayers, this is the immediate solution as needed to prevent late fees and support the ease of compliance.