At the 37th GST Council meeting held on Friday, it was decided to provide some relief to small businesses by allowing them a waiver on filing GSTR 9 and GSTR-9A.

According to an official press release:

Relaxation in the filing of annual returns for MSMEs for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 are as under:

• waiver of the requirement of filing FORM GSTR-9A for Composition Taxpayers for the said tax periods; and
• filing of FORM GSTR-9 for those taxpayers who (are required to file the said return but) have an aggregate turnover up to Rs. 2 crores made optional for the said tax periods."

The changes take the tax filing rules back to the pre-GST regime when small businesses were exempt from annual return requirement under VAT (Value Added Tax).

Further, the GST council made recommendations of forming a Committee of Officers to be constituted to examine the simplification of Forms for Annual Return and reconciliation statement.

The last date to for filing of appeals against orders of Appellate Authority before the GST Appellate Tribunal will also be extended as the Appellate Tribunals are yet not functional.

Linking Aadhaar

The press release also said that the council has taken the principle decision to link Aadhar with the registration of taxpayers under GST and examine the possibility of making Aadhar mandatory for claiming refunds.