GST Basics #17: Sections 37 and 39 — The Two Returns You File

The invoice you issue and the books you keep exist so that you can file two returns. GSTR-1 declares what you sold; GSTR-3B pays the tax. Here is what each one is, when it falls due, and why filing late costs your customer money too.

Everything in the last two instalments - the invoice you issue and the books you keep - exists so that you can file two returns. Section 37 governs the first and Section 39 the second.

Form GSTR-1 is your statement of outward supplies. It is not a tax payment; it is a declaration of what you sold. Supplies to registered buyers go in invoice by invoice, sales to consumers go in as consolidated figures, and exports, credit notes, debit notes, advances and a summary of your goods by HSN code go in separately. The GST portal's own guide says GSTR-1 is due on the eleventh day of the following month for monthly filers and the thirteenth day of the month after the quarter for quarterly filers, and that it must be filed even for a month with no business at all.

You cannot revise a filed GSTR-1. A mistake is corrected through Form GSTR-1A, which can be filed once for a tax period and only before the GSTR-3B for that same period. Two locks also apply: Section 37(4) stops you filing a GSTR-1 while the previous one is unfiled, and Rule 59(6)(b) stops you filing it while the previous GSTR-3B is unfiled. Returns must be filed in order, and a single missed month blocks every month after it.

Form GSTR-3B is the summary return under Section 39, and it is where the tax is actually paid. Monthly filers file it by the twentieth of the following month.

If your aggregate turnover is up to Rs. 5 crore you may opt into the Quarterly Return Monthly Payment scheme instead. You then file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B once a quarter, but you still pay every month, generating a challan by the twenty-fifth for each of the first two months - either 35% of the last quarter's cash payment or your own computation of the month's liability. For Tamil Nadu the quarterly GSTR-3B falls on the twenty-second of the month following the quarter; the other State group files on the twenty-fourth. Between quarterly filings you can push your B2B invoices to your buyers through the optional Invoice Furnishing Facility by the thirteenth.

That last point is why this matters to your customer as much as to you. What you declare in GSTR-1 is what appears in his GSTR-2B, and instalment #11 explained that his credit depends on the invoice reaching him there. File late and you cost him money as well as paying interest and a late fee yourself.

Composition dealers are outside all of this and file CMP-08 and GSTR-4 instead - see instalment #9.

The portal's guide is at https://tutorial.gst.gov.in/userguide/returns/GSTR_1.htm and the official QRMP advisory at https://tutorial.gst.gov.in/offlineutilities/returns/QRMP_Advisory.pdf

Topics:GST BasicsSection 37Section 39GSTR-1GSTR-3BQRMP schemeGSTR-2Bdue datesreturn filingTamil Nadu GSTChennai

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