1. Notification No. 16/2021 of Central Tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   Appointed Effective date for provisions of section 112 of Finance Act, 2021 as 1st June 2021, which amended Subsection (1) Section 50 of Central Goods and Services Act retrospectively. i.e., Interest shall be levied only on the portion of the tax which is paid by debiting the electronic cash ledger.
2. Notification No. 17/2021 of Central Tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   The due date for furnishing outward supplies in GSTR 1 for the period May 2021 extended to 26th June 2021.
3. Notification No. 18/2021 of Central Tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   Reduction of rate of interest for liability to pay tax but fail to do so in 2nd wave of Covid 19 pandemic:

   S.No	Class of Tax Payers	Return Period	Interest Relaxation
   1	Taxpayer having an aggregate turnover of more than Rs. 5 Cr in preceding financial year	March 2021, April 2021 and May 2021	9% for the first 15 days i.e., 05-05-2021, 04-06-2021 and 05-07-2021 for tax periods March 2021, April 2021 and May 2021 respectively and thereafter 18% pa
   2	Taxpayer having an aggregate turnover of up to Rs. 5 Cr (Monthly) in preceding financial year	March 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., 05-05-2021, 9% pa for next 45 days i.e., till 19-06-2021 and 18% pa thereafter
   		April 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., till 04-06-2021, 9% pa for next 30 days i.e., till 04-07-2021 and 18% pa thereafter
   		May 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., 05-07-2021, 9% for next 15 days i.e., 20-07-2021 and 18% pa thereafter
   3	Taxpayer having an aggregate turnover of up to Rs. 5 Cr (QRMP) in preceding financial year	March 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., 07-05-2021, 9% pa for next 45 days i.e., till 21-06-2021 and 18% pa thereafter
   		April 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., till 09-06-2021, 9% pa for next 30 days i.e., till 09-07-2021 and 18% pa thereafter
   		May 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., 10-07-2021, 9% for next 15 days i.e., 25-07-2021 and 18% pa thereafter
   4	Composite Taxpayers	Quarter ending March 2021	NIL for first 15 days i.e., 03-05-2021, 9% for next 45 days i.e., 17-06-2021 and 18% pa thereafter

4. Notification No. 02/2021-Integrated Tax Dated 01/06/2021 and Notification No. 02/2021-Union Territory Tax Dated 01/06/2021
   Seeks to provide relief by lowering of interest rate for late filing of monthly/quarterly returns in Form GSTR-3B or PMT-06 challans as well as for late filing of statement in Form CMP-08 by the composition taxpayers.
5. Notification No. 19, 20, 21 & 22 /2021 of Central Tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   > Waiver of Late Fee as specified in section 47 of CGST Act, 2017 in 2nd wave of Covid 19 pandemic:

   S.No	Class of Tax Payer	Period	Period for which late fee waived
   1	Tax payer having an aggregate turnover of more than Rs. 5Cr in preceding financial year	March 2021, April 2021 and May 2021	15 days from actual due date i.e., till 05-05-2021, 04-06-2021 and 05-07-2021 for tax periods March 2021, April 2021 and May 2021 respectively
   2	Taxpayer having an aggregate turnover of up to Rs. 5Cr in preceding financial year (monthly)	March 2021	60 days from the actual due date i.e., till 19-06-2021
   		April 2021	45 days from the actual due date i.e., till 04-07-2021
   		May 2021	30 days from the actual due date i.e., till 20-07-2021
   3	Taxpayer having an aggregate turnover of up to Rs. 5 Cr (QRMP) in preceding financial year	January 2021 to March 2021	60 days from the actual due date i.e., 21-06-2021

   > Further waiver of the late fee specified under section 47 for the returns for the period July 2017 to April 2021:

   S.No	Class of Taxpayers	Amount of waiver	The period in which return to be filed
   1	A registered person whose tax payable is NIL	In Excess of Rs.250/- each CGST and SGST per return i.e., in excess of Rs.500/-	From 01-06-2021 to 31-08-2021
   2	In other cases	In excess of Rs.500/- each CGST and SGST per return i.e., in excess of Rs.1000/-	From 01-06-2021 to 31-08-2021

   > Also specified maximum amount of late fee to be levied for below mentioned registered person, if they furnish after the due date of GSTR 1 or GSTR 3B from the tax period June 2021 or quarter ending June 2021:

   S.No	Class of taxpayer	Maximum Amount of Late fee
   1	A registered person whose tax payable is NIL	Rs.250/- each CGST and SGST per return. I.e., Rs.500/- per return
   2	A registered person having an aggregate turnover of up to Rs.1.5 cr in the preceding FY other than Sl no. 1	Rs.1000/- each CGST and SGST per return i.e., Rs.2000/- per return
   3	A registered person having an aggregate turnover of more than Rs.1.5 cr to Rs.5 Cr in the preceding FY other than Sl No. 1	Rs.2500/- each CGST and SGST per return i.e., Rs.5000/- per return

   Note: No reduction for registered person having an aggregate turnover of more than 5 crs.
   > Maximum amount late fee under section 47 of CGST Act, 2017, for the financial year 2021-22 onwards who fails to furnish the return in FORM GSTR-04 by the due date (Composite Scheme):

   S.No	Class of taxpayer	Maximum Amount of Late fee
   1	A registered person whose tax payable is NIL	Rs.250/- each CGST and SGST per return. I.e., Rs.500/- per return
   2	Other cases	Rs.1000/- each CGST and SGST per return i.e., Rs.2000/- per return

   > Maximum amount of late fee under section 47 of CGST Act,2017, for the month of June 2021 onwards who fails to furnish the return in FORM GSTR -07 by the due date (TDS Return):

   S.No	Class of Taxpayer	Maximum amount of Late fee
   1	A registered person who fails to furnish GSTR 07	Rs.1000/- each CGST and SGST per return i.e., Rs.2000/- per return

6. Notification No. 23/2021 of Central Tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   The government department and local authority are excluded from E-Invoicing provisions along with the following
   a. an insurer or a banking company or a financial institution including non-banking financial institution.
   b. Goods Transport Agency (GTA)
   c. Passenger transporter
   d. A registered person supplying services by way of admission to an exhibition of cinematograph films on multiplex screens
7. Notification No. 24/2021 of Central tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   a. where, any time limit for completion or compliance of any action, by any authority or by any person, falls during the period from 15th April 2021 to the 29th June 2021, if it had not completed in that period, the time limit extended to 30th June 2021. Except for Registration procedure, provisions relating casual taxpayer and non-resident taxpayer, Invoicing, furnishing of outward supply, Late fee, Interest, power to arrest, Partner’s liability to discharge tax, Penalty, detention and seizer of goods and conveyances in transit, GSTR 3B, inspection of goods and rules made thereunder.
   b. where, any time limit for completion of any action, by any authority or by any person, falls during the period from 1st May 2021 to 30th June 2021, if it had not completed in that period, the time limit for completion action extended to 15th July 2021.
   c. The time limit for issuance of order of rejection of refund claim falls during the period from 15th April 2021 to 29th June 2021, said time limit for issuance of order extended to 30th June 2021.
8. Notification No. 25/2021 of Central tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   The due date for furnishing Form GSTR 4 (Yearly return for Composition scheme) further extended to on or before 31st July 2021.
9. Notification No 26/2021 of Central tax Dated: 01/06/2021
   Due date for furnishing declaration in Form ITC 04, in respect of goods dispatched to job worker or received from a job worker, during the period from 1st January 2021 to 31st March 2021 extended to 30th June 2021.
10. Notification No 27/2021 of Central Tax Dated: 01/06/2021
    > Authentication through the EVC by companies and LLPs extended to 31st August 2021.
    > Relaxation of Rule 36(4) given to the period April 2021 and May 2021 and this rule has to be applied cumulatively for the tax period April 2021, May 2021 and June 2021 in Form GSTR 3B of the month or quarter ending 30th June 2021.
    > Time limit for furnishing outward supplies of B2B transactions for the period May 2021 through IFF extended to 28th June 2021 to 13th June 2021.

1. GST audit requirement by specific professionals such as CAs and CMAs has been removed from the GST law. Sections 35 and 44 have been amended in this regard. As per the amendment, only GSTR-9 annual returns on a self-certification basis need to be filed on the GST portal by taxpayers, completely removing the requirement for GSTR-9C, i.e. the reconciliation statement. However, the financial year and date of applicability are yet to be clarified by the government.
2. Section 129 is delinked from Section 130. Accordingly, proceedings relating to detention, seizure and release of goods and conveyances in transit will be separate from the levy of penalty for the confiscation of goods and conveyance.
3. Section 16 amended to allow taxpayers’ claim of input tax credit based on GSTR-2A and 2B. Henceforth, ITC on invoices and debit notes may be availed only when the details of such invoice or debit note have been furnished by the supplier in the statement of outward supplies, and such details have been communicated to the recipient of such invoice or debit note.
4. Section 50 of the CGST Act is being amended to provide for a retrospective charge of interest on net cash liability, with effect from 1st July 2017.
5. Section 7 of the CGST Act was amended to include a new clause under the definition of supply. Activities or transactions involving the supply of goods or services by any person, other than an individual, to its members or constituents or vice-versa, for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration falls under supply and will be liable to tax. Earlier, this supply would have been considered as only supply of goods under schedule II. So, the scope is expanded now for levy.
6. Seizure and confiscation of goods and conveyances in transit are now made a separate proceeding from the recovery of tax from Section 74.
7. Self-assessed tax referred to under section 75 of the CGST Act shall also cover the outward supplies/sales as reported in the GSTR-1 under Section 37 of the CGST Act, but which has been missed out while reporting in the GSTR-3B under Section 39.
8. The IGST Act was also amended in Section 16, that defines a zero-rated supply. Three amendments were made – (1) To state that supply to SEZ units /developers will be zero-rated only if it is authorized operations. (2) Only notified persons or supplies of goods/services can avail the status of zero-rated when IGST is paid. (3) Foreign exchange remittance will be linked in case of export of goods with the refund.
9. The Jurisdictional Commissioner can now call for information from any person relating to any matter dealt with in connection with the Act under Section 151, together with section 168. Further, section 152 is amended to provide an opportunity of being heard before using information obtained under Sections 150 or 151 of the Act
10. The provisional attachment shall remain valid for the entire period starting from the initiation of any proceeding till the expiry of a period of one year from the date of order made thereunder.
11. With respect to orders received on detention and seizure of goods and conveyance, 25% of penalty needs to be paid for making an application for appeals under section 107 of the CGST Act. Date of applicability is yet to be notified.

Inbound process in OptiE-Invoice enables organizations to automate and stream line the processing of supplier invoices. It automatically extracts information from any incoming invoice, validates data and transfers it to your ERP (SAP) system. The system validates electronically generated E-Invoices from IRP Portal as well as manual invoices (Hard copy and soft copy). It extracts data, validates with already created Goods receipt, Purchase order etc, highlights discrepancies (if any) and post the data automatically to your ERP(SAP) system( If data matches).

• Fully automated solution with faster processing.
• 3 Level verification on Invoice processing(Validate, Park and Post)
• Preview of Invoices along with extracted value to ensure correct values getting processed.
• User friendly Dashboards to view statistics on what got processed, Pending and Rejected. It will also showcase Aging Invoices, Vendor wise reports, to do list of a particular user etc.
• Single window solution for all Invoice documents whether it is E-Invoice, Hard copy Invoices or Softcopy Invoices.
• Option to send documents automatically to ERP (SAP-Content server)

1. CBIC provided relief by waiving late fees for filing GSTR 3B
   

   Relief by waiving late fees for filing GSTR 3B

   Notification No

   15 days from the due date of furnishing return for the months of March & April 2021 in case of Taxpayers having an aggregate turnover of more than rupees 5 crores in the preceding financial year, 30 days from the due date of furnishing return for the months of March & April 2021 in case of Taxpayers having an aggregate turnover of upto rupees 5 crores in the preceding financial year. 30 days from the due date of furnishing return for the quarter Jan-March 2021 in case of Taxpayers having an aggregate turnover of upto rupees 5 crores in the preceding financial year and opted for QRMP scheme.

   09/2021 dated 01.05.2021

    

2. CBIC provided relief by low interest rate for late filing of monthly/quarterly GSTR 3B as well as ITC- 04
   

   Seeks to provide relief by lowering of interest rate for late filing of monthly/quarterly returns in Form GSTR-3B as well for late filing of ITC -04 by the composition taxpayers.	Notification No
   Relief by low interest rate for late filing of monthly/quarterly Form GSTR 3B as well as ITC -04 for tax period ending 31-03-2021 and 30-04-2021.	08/2021 dated 01.05.2021-Central Tax 01/2021 dated 01.05.2021-Integrated Tax 01/2021 dated 01.05.2021-Union Territory Tax

    

3. CBIC provided the facility of Filing GSTR 3B, GSTR 1/ IFF using EVC instead of DSC on 27.04.2021
   

   GSTR-3B & GSTR-1/ IFF, using EVC enabled for companies	Notification No
   The facility of filing GSTR-3B and GSTR-1/ IFF, using EVC instead of DSC, for companies has been provided upto May 31, 2021.	07/2021 dated 27.04.2021

    

4. CBIC amends notification no. 89/2020 dated 29th November, 2020 related to waiver of penalty for not capturing of QR code in Einvoice.
   

   Waived penalty payable for non-compliance and non issuance of Dynamic QR Code	Notification No.
   Government has made the amendments in notification No. 89/2020 which was issued on 29th November, 2020. In this notification, Government has notified the waiver of penalty for non compliance of capturing dynamic QR code in GST Invoice from December 2020 to June 30, 2021, fixed deadline of compliance to July 1, 2021.	06/2021 dated 30.03.2021

5. CBIC amends rules related to E-Invoice under GST Notifications- Central Tax’s Popular Posts
   

   GST e-Invoicing turnover limit reduced to ₹ 50 Crores w.e.f.  01.04.2021	Notification No.
   Now taxpayers having turnover exceeding Rs 50 Crores will have to generate Einvoice effective April 1, 2021.	05/2021 dated 08.03.2021

1. Rule 23(1)is amended to allow the filing of an application for revocation of cancellation of registration within a period of 30 days from date of service of the order of cancellation or within such time period as extended by the Additional Commissioner or the Joint Commissioner or the Commissioner, as the case may be. Such amendment is done to bring the rules in line with the amendment made in Section 30 of the CGST Act which allows the time period for filing revocation application to be extended.
2. Provision has been added to Rule 90(3) to exclude the time period from the date of filing of the refund claim in FORM GST RFD-01 till the date of communication of the deficiencies in FORM GST RFD-03 by the proper officer, from the period of two years as specified under sub-section (1) of Section 54, in respect of any such fresh refund claim filed by the applicant after rectification of the deficiencies. This is a welcome relief as it was observed in many cases that the deficiency memos were being issued very late at the time of expiry of the statutory time period of 2 years.
3. Sub-rule (5)has been inserted to Rule 90 which provides that an applicant may at any time before issuance of provisional refund (FORM GST RFD-04) or payment order (FORM GST RFD-05) or final refund (FORM GST RFD-06) or refund withhold order (FORM GST RFD-07) or notice (FORM GST RFD-08) withdraw the refund application filed by him by filing a new FORM RFD-01W.
4. Sub-rule (6)has been inserted to Rule 90 providing that on submission of FORM RFD-01W, any amount debited by the applicant from electronic credit ledger or electronic cash ledger, as the case may be, while filing an application for refund in FORM GST RFD-01, shall be credited back to the ledger from which such debit was made.
5. Sub-rule (1)in Rule 92 relating to PART Aof FORM RFD-07 has been omitted.
6. Previous PART Bof FORM RFD-07 has been renamed as PART-A.
7. Provision has been inserted to Rule 92(2) to allow the proper officer or the Commissioner to pass on order for the release of withheld refund in PART B of FORM RFD-07 where refund is no longer liable to be withheld.
8. Changes made in instructions to FORM REG-21in line with the changes made in Rule 23 mentioned above in point no.1.
9. FORM RFD-07 has been substituted to incorporate the above-mentioned changes.

The details are summarized below:
Filing of Form GSTR-1/IFF by Normal Taxpayers:

Filing of Returns by Composition, NRTP, ISD, TDS & TCS Taxpayers and ITC – 04:

Amidst the second wave of covid-19 pandemic throughout the country and complete/partial lock-down already in force in most parts of the country, CBIC comes out with another set of midnight notifications to provide relief to the taxpayers for various GST compliance/returns.
The relief comes in the form of waiving late fees for certain returns and providing conditional reduction in interest on late payment of GST.
CBIC, vide notifications have also relaxed the provisions of Rule 36(4) for the month of April 2021, which could benefit the taxpayers in claiming ITC for the month of April 2021, subject to certain conditions.

Here are the significant changes in GST which will be applicable from April 1, 2021.

E-invoice would bring in a practice which would benefit various stakeholders in the long run. Some of the key stake holders other than government in this new direction are Suppliers, Customers, Business, Employees, Financial institutions. Any Business Transaction has touch points with one or several of the above stakeholders. With multiple business transactions performed in a single day these touch points are visited several times in a day. Employees of any organization would be benefited most by the introduction of E Invoicing. Just imagine the hours saved on data Entry, account reconciliation, e-filling, reporting etc.

There are numerous benefits to be gained by shifting away from paper and manual based invoice processing to more digitised approaches. Proper electronic invoicing is considered by most to be the transmission of a structured EDI or XML document from the supplier into the buyer’s Accounts Payable (AP) system. Depending upon the location of the buyer or supplier, regulations also may require a government issued identification number, qualified electronic signatures, specific content fields and long-term archival of the invoice.

1. Digital Invoice Capture— Data re-entry is the most problematic of the processes as it is time-consuming and error-prone. E-invoicing fully automates the invoice capture process with data being routed straight from the supplier into the buyer’s AP system.
2. Automated Invoice Validation Most AP organizations perform validations of line items on the invoice before routing the invoice to Line of Business managers for approval. In addition to capturing the data electronically, most e-invoicing solutions will also perform field-level validations of the content as well.
3. Automated Matching – One of the more complex validations performed is the matching between an invoice and the related documents in the procure to-pay lifecycle. However, the costs, accuracy and time required for the validations can be significantly reduced through automation. A key component of an e-invoicing solution should be matching process between the contracts, PO, invoice and goods receipt notice.
4. Vendor Self-Service A key element of e-invoicing program is that it will offer vendors the ability to check the status of the invoice submission and acceptance by Customers. This is also going to help MSME business for working capital.
5. Enhanced Cash Management – Paper or e-mail based invoices take longer to become visible in AP systems. Paper and e-mail based documents also have a higher probability of being lost in the approval process. Without visibility to invoices in the approval process, cash managers lack the comprehensive data necessary for forecasting. A large invoice, which is not discovered by the treasury organization until shortly before payment, could result in a significant cash deficit relative to forecast. As a result, a business may need to borrow funds at the last minute at a relatively expensive premium. By processing invoices electronically, all upcoming payments become visible to the treasury organization in the accounting system improving forecast accuracy.
6. Enhanced Account Reconciliation – To simplify GST account reconciliation for suppliers and customers since the Invoice details provide is automatically passed to GSTN for returns. The issues of ICD , Debit / credit note matching , Reverse charge etc will be much simplified.
7. Lower Carbon Footprint – Proponents of e-invoicing also promote the lower carbon footprint of electronic transactions. In theory no paper is consumed. Nor is there any transportation of the paper from supplier to the buyer. Although the digitization of a single invoice does not lower greenhouse gas emissions significantly, the cumulative effect of removing millions of paper invoices from the financial supply chain is impactful. The impact of removing tens of billions of paper invoices from the financial supply chain would be significant.
8. Global Acceptance – There are several International E-Invoicing Framework’s / platforms like PEPPOL which facilitate seamless connectivity between global buyers and sellers. Most of this platform will open up Trade Promotion for business.