Last date for annual GST returns extended

NEW DELHI: The GST Council in its 35th meeting Friday extended the date for filing annual returns under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime by two months to August 30. The Council also decided to introduce a new one-form new GST return filing system, which will be applicable from January 1, 2020.

Friday's meeting of the Council was it's first after the recently concluded general elections. The GST Council, which is headed by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also approved an electronic invoicing system and e-ticketing in multiplexes.

The GST Council also eased the registration process by allowing the use of Aadhaar by businesses to register with GST-Network. "One of the major changes that we've made is for the ease of GST registration. In the earlier system, people had to give various documents. Now we have decided to use Aadhaar," Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said. See P12