In GST or Goods and Services Tax regime, we have two types of supply, one is intra-state supply and the other one is inter-state supply. A taxable person after taking GST registration, require to pay following taxes in case of intra-state supply of goods and/or services;
- CGST – central goods and services tax, which is paid to the account of central government
- SGST – State goods and services tax, which is paid into the account of concerned state government.
Instead of a state, if the supply is from a union territory without legislature, then instead of SGST, you should charge UTGST, which is known as union territory GST. This amount will go to the account of concerned union territory.
In inter-state supply instead of CGST and SGST/UTGST, tax to be paid is integrated GST or IGST.
GST law has also asked certain type of persons to deduct and/or collect goods and services tax wherever applicable.
In case of contravention of law or delay, wherever applicable, interest, penalty, fees and other payments will also be required to be payable in addition to GST liability.
When to pay Goods and Services Tax or GST in India
Payment of GST and filing of return has been defined based on the type of registration you have availed.
If you are registered under the GST law and not part of composition scheme, you are required to file your return by 10th and pay GST by the 20th of the following month.
At present, return is filed by using GSTR -1 and tax is paid by using GSTR – 3B forms.
To de-stress the GST system the government of India has staggered the last dates of filing GSTR-3B. Now due to this change, instead of 20th of the following month, three dates are introduced based on categories of taxpayers.
Due to this change, we have now three dates, 20th, 22nd and 24th of every month. If the taxpayer’s annual turnover is Rs 5 crore and above in the previous financial year then, the date of filing is on or before 20th of the following month.
Now the taxpayers having annual turnover of below Rs 5 Crore in the previous financial year has been divided into following two categories;
- If the taxpayer is from 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 then, the last date of filing GSTR-3B return is 22nd of the following month without late fees.
- Taxpayers from 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 with annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in previous financial year, are required to file their GSTR-3B on or before 24th of the following month without late fees
If your aggregate turnover is less than Rs 1.5 Crore, then return in GSTR-1 will be filed quarterly, but GST has to be paid monthly on or before the due date as discussed above.
For instance, if you are filing for the month of January, the GSTR-1 has to be filed on or before 10th February and GSTR-3B has to be filed on or before the 20th/22nd/24th February.
If you have opted for quarterly return filing then, return for the period starting from January to March has to filed on or before 10th April, but GSTR-3B has to be filed for each month i.e. for January, February and March on or before 20th/22nd/24th February, 20th/22nd/24th March and 20th/22nd/24th April respectively.
In case, you have availed for composition scheme, your return filing and payment of GST is quarterly. Composition scheme dealer need to pay tax and file return on or before the 18th of the month following the quarter for which taxes are paid and gst return is filed.
These dates of filing return and payment of GST can be changed based on technical issues on the common portal or for any other reasons. Therefore, you are requested to check the due date from your return filing option available at the common portal.
Ledgers on common portal for payment of GST
Once you are registered under GST law, following three E-ledgers or electronic ledgers are automatically gets created on common portal to manage the entire GST payment process online. These e-ledgers will be displayed to you once you log-in to your dashboard on the common portal.
We have published different detailed article on each of these ledgers, you are requested to use the link given above to understand how it works in GST regime.
How the three ledgers are adjusted
Your electronic liability register is debited for followings;
- The amount payable towards tax, interest, late fee or any other amount payable as per the return furnished by the said person;
- The amount of tax, interest, penalty or any other amount payable determined by a proper officer in pursuance to any proceeding under the act or as ascertained by the said person.
- The amount of tax and interest payable as a result of mismatch under section 42 or section 43 or section 52; or
- Any amount of interest that may accrue from time to time
This means for all of your liability, this ledger will be debited stating the total amount that the taxable person is liable. When payment of all liabilities are received as per the return filed, the electronic credit ledger gets credited first for the input tax credit claimed by the taxpayer and credited for the payment received from taxpayer. In the next step, electronic liability register gets credited for the whole amount by debiting available ITC amount in electronic credit ledger and balance liability amount if any left out from electronic cash ledger by debiting it. This means, electronic credit ledger only gets credited while setting off the liability from electronic cash and credit ledger.
Electronic cash ledger gets debited and electronic liability register gets credited for payment of TDS deducted U/s 51, TCS deducted by e-commerce operator U/s 52, amount payable under reverse charge basis, amount payable U/s 10, amount payable towards payment of interest, penalty, fee or any other amount under the Act.
When interest under GST law is payable in India
As per GST law, every taxable person is liable to pay tax in accordance to the provisions of GST law. If any person who is liable to pay tax in accordance with the provisions of the Act, or the rules made thereunder, but fails to pay the tax or any part thereof to the government within the period prescribed, pay on his own, interest at such rate not exceeding 18%, as may be notified by the government on the recommendation of the council. Vide notification number 13/2017 dated 28.06.2017; government has notified that the rate of interest is 18% per annum.
Interest has to be paid for the period for which the tax or any part thereof remains unpaid from the day on which tax was due to be paid.
If the taxable person makes an undue or excess claim of input tax credit or undue or excess reduction in output tax liability, then such person shall pay interest on such undue or excess claim or on such undue or excess reduction, as the case may be at such rate not exceeding 24%. Vide notification number 13/2017 dated 28.06.2017, government has notified the rate of interest as 24% per annum.
Rounding off of goods and services tax
Tax, interest, penalty, fine or any other sum payable and the amount of refund or any other sum due, under the provisions of GST law, shall be rounded off to the nearest rupee.
For this purpose, where such amount contains a part of a rupee consisting of paise then, if such part is fifty paisa or more, it shall be increased to one rupee. If such part is less than fifty paise it shall be ignored.
Please note, rounding off is applicable only while paying consolidated payments to government, it’s not applicable to tax shown in the GST invoice.
