GST Returns cannot be filed after expiry of  Three-Year Deadline

The Goods and Ser­vices Tax Net­work (GSTN) has reit­er­at­ed an impor­tant advi­so­ry to all tax­pay­ers regard­ing the statu­to­ry lim­i­ta­tion on the fil­ing of pend­ing GST returns.

As per the amend­ments intro­duced through Finance Act, 2023 (Act No. 8 of 2023), dat­ed March 31, 2023, and brought into force from Octo­ber 1, 2023, via Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 28/2023 – Cen­tral Tax, dat­ed July 31, 2023, tax­pay­ers will be pro­hib­it­ed from fil­ing returns under cer­tain sec­tions beyond a peri­od of three years from their respec­tive due dates.

Key Legal Provisions:

The restric­tion applies to the fol­low­ing sec­tions of the CGST Act:

• Sec­tion 37 – Fur­nish­ing of out­ward sup­ply details (GSTR‑1, IFF)
• Sec­tion 39 – Monthly/quarterly return (GSTR-3B, GSTR‑4, GSTR‑5, GSTR-5A)
• Sec­tion 44 – Annu­al return (GSTR‑9, GSTR-9C)
• Sec­tion 52 – Tax col­lect­ed at source (GSTR‑8)

This means that fil­ing of any of the above GST returns will be per­ma­nent­ly blocked after three years from their respec­tive due dates.

Imple­men­ta­tion Timeline:

GSTN has clar­i­fied that this restric­tion will be tech­ni­cal­ly enforced on the GST por­tal from the July 2025 tax peri­od onwards.

Thus, effec­tive August 1, 2025, returns with due dates falling before August 1, 2022, will no longer be per­mit­ted for fil­ing on the GST portal.

Returns Affect­ed from 1st August 2025:

GST Form	Barred Tax Period
GSTR‑1 / IFF	June 2022
GSTR‑1 Quar­ter­ly	April – June 2022
GSTR-3B Month­ly	June 2022
GSTR-3B Quar­ter­ly	April – June 2022
GSTR‑4	FY 2021–22
GSTR‑5	June 2022
GSTR‑6	June 2022
GSTR‑7	June 2022
GSTR‑8	June 2022
GSTR‑9 / 9C	FY 2020–21

This implies that any return not filed for the above peri­ods on or before July 31, 2025, shall become per­ma­nent­ly barred from fil­ing.

Exam­ple for Clarity:

If a tax­pay­er has not yet filed GSTR-3B for June 2022, which was due in July 2022, the dead­line to file that return will per­ma­nent­ly lapse on July 31, 2025.

Pre­vi­ous Advisory:

GSTN had already issued a pub­lic advi­so­ry in this regard on Octo­ber 29, 2024, urg­ing tax­pay­ers to take time­ly action.

All taxpayers—especially those with non-fil­er sta­tus for old­er periods—are strong­ly advised to imme­di­ate­ly rec­on­cile their records and file pend­ing GST returns before the three-year dead­line expires. Non-com­pli­ance may result in:

• Inabil­i­ty to reg­u­lar­ize past defaults
• Expo­sure to penal­ties, inter­est, and depart­men­tal actions