New Delhi: In a taxpayer friendly measure, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) Monday rolled out a new facility for composition taxpayers to file their nil GST statement simply by sending a short message (SMS) from their phones.
The move will benefit nearly one-fifth of over 17 lakh composition taxpayers, who file statements.
“With this, composition taxpayers can now file NIL statements in Form GST CMP-08 through SMS and without logging in to the GST portal,” GSTN said in a statement sent to ETV Bharat.
Composition taxpayers are required to file quarterly statements about their transactions in GST-CMP-08 form.
The GSTN had rolled out the facility to file GSTR-3B and GSTR-1 returns simply by SMS in June-July this year.
GSTN said the facility of filing nil statements on the GST portal will remain available to the taxpayers.
How to file Nil Form GST CMP-08 through SMS
A composition taxpayer is required to send a SMS writing: NIL<space>C8<space>GSTIN<space>Return Period to 14409.
For example, in order to file nil statement for tax period April-June 2020 period, a taxpayer will have to compose SMS like this in which the last six digits will be the month and year in MMYYYY format such as NIL C8 07AXXXXXXXXXXZ6 062020.
The taxpayers are required to use the last month of relevant tax period, for example if the nil statement is for April-June quarter of FY 2020, then in SMS they need to type 062020, where 06 stands for the terminating month of the tax period and remaining four digits are for the financial year.
Read more: Govt waives off 'interest on interest' for loan moratorium period: How will it work?
After sending the SMS, the taxpayer will receive a six-digit verification code through a return SMS.
The taxpayer is required to send one more SMS containing the verification code to the same number 14409 for confirmation purpose.
For example, if the taxpayers received a verification code 324961 then he should send the confirmation SMS as CNF<space>C8<space> Verification Code, like CNF C8 324961 and send it to 14409.
Upon successful validation of verification code, the GST Portal will send back an Application Reference Number (ARN) to the same mobile number and also on the registered e-mail ID of the taxpayer to intimate successful filing of nil statement of the form GST CMP-08.
How to verify successful filing of nil statement
Subsequent to the successful filing of Nil Form CMP-08, through SMS, the status of Form CMP-08 will be changed to ‘Filed’ on GST Portal. The taxpayer can visit the portal and check it.
If the sequence of the message is incomplete or incorrect or not according to the format, filing will be unsuccessful, GSTN said. The nodal body that manages the IT backbone of the nationwide common goods and services tax (GST) advised the taxpayers to file NIL CMP-08 or any other NIL return through SMS in the prescribed format only.
(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)
