The Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC), which controls Goods and Services Tax (GST), has announced that the department will not charge any late fees for the delay in the filing the returns under form GSTR-3B in the cases where the liability of the assessee is NIL.

Under the notification issued by CBIC, the department said that several assessees have not filed their GST returns before the COVID-19 period starting from July 2017 till Jan 2020. For such assessees, who have no tax liabilities, the department will not charge any fees for the delay in submission.

The Notification said, “For the taxpayers having an aggregate turnover of more than rupees 5 crores in the preceding financial year, who fail to furnish the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the months of May 2020 to July 2020, by the due date but furnish the said return till the 30th day of September 2020, the total amount of late fee under section 47 of the said Act, shall stand waived which is in excess of two hundred and fifty rupees and shall stand fully waived for those taxpayers where the total amount of central tax payable in the said return is nil”.

The waiver of late fees has been provided to all the small taxpayers, having an annual turnover of less than ₹ 5 Crore, if they file the return for the period till September 2020. Form GSTR-3B is a self-declaration form mandatory to be filed by the assessees and the registered dealers from July 2020 to March 2020. The announcement of notification will come in effect from 25th June 2020.