Self Certified Return will Replace the Audit Report

Section 110 and 111 of the Finance Act, 2021 had earlier amended Section 35 and 44 of the CGST Act, so as to remove the mandatory requirement of getting annual accounts audited by a Chartered Accountant or a Cost Accountant and furnishing of audited reconciliation statement in Form GSTR-9C. Rather, the reconciliation statement will now be provided by the tax payer on Self-certified basis while filing the annual return in Form GSTR-9.

It is important to note here that, a proviso has been inserted in Section 44 of the CGST Act to provide that the Commissioner may exempt any class of persons from filing Annual Returns upon receiving such recommendation from the GST Council.

Further, the due date for filing annual return under Section 44 of the CGST Act, which was earlier provided in Section 44, as December 31 of every year, has now been deleted and it has been stated that the due date of filing will be prescribed by way of notifying rules.

Both the above Section 110 and 111 of the Finance Act, 2021 have been made operative by Notification No. 29/2021- Central Tax dated 30th July 2021 from 1st August 1, 2021.