The government has launched the Quarterly Return Filing and Monthly Payment of Taxes (QRMP) scheme in a bid to ease the return filing experience of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) taxpayers. The scheme will come into effect from January 1, 2021, it will impact 9.4 million taxpayers, who constitute 92% of the total tax base of GST and have an annual aggregate turnover (AATO) of up to Rs 5 crore.
With the introduction of the QRMP scheme, sources say, small taxpayers would need to file only eight returns – four each GSTR-3B and GSTR-1 – instead of the existing requirement of 16 returns in a financial year, of which 12 are GSTR-3B. The new scheme would also significantly reduce taxpayers’ professional expenses on return filing as they would have to file just half the number of returns as against the current requirement of 16. Also, the QRMP scheme would be available on the common GST portal with the facility to opt-in and opt-out, and opt-in again, as per a taxpayer’s wishes.
The scheme would bring in the concept of providing input tax credit (ITC) only on the reported invoices, thus putting a curb on the menace of fake invoice frauds. Additionally, the QRMP scheme is also likely to have the optional feature of Invoice Filing Facility (IFF) to mitigate the business-related hardships of the small and medium taxpayers. Under the IFF, taxpayers who opt to file their returns quarterly would be able to upload and file such invoices even in the first and second month of the quarter for which there is a demand from the recipients.
The taxpayers won’t need to upload and file all the invoices of the month. Only those invoices, which are required to be filed in IFF as per the recipients’ demands, are to be uploaded. The remaining invoices of the first and second months can be uploaded in the quarterly GSTR-1 return.
The QRMP scheme is based on the existing return system with suitable modifications in a bid to give much-needed flexibility to the small and medium enterprises with regards to GST compliance. It was approved in principle by the GST Council in its 42nd meeting on October 5, 2020.
