Taxpayers who have not filed GSTR-3B return for the past two months will not be allowed to file GSTR-1 return from next month, GSTN announced in an advisory on Friday.

The move will be enacted under Rule-59(6) of CGST Rules, 2017, that comes into effect from September 1, 2021, said the technical backbone of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

GSTN stated in the advisory that “a registered person shall not be allowed to furnish the details of outward supplies of goods or services or both under section 37 in Form GSTR-1, if he has not furnished the return in Form GSTR-3B for preceding two months.”

Businesses have to file GSTR-1 returns for a particular month by the 11th day of the subsequent month. GSTR-3B, through which businesses pay their taxes, for a month has to be filed in a staggered manner between 20th to 24th of the next month.

GSTN said that “a registered person, required to furnish return for every quarter under the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 39, shall not be allowed to furnish the details of outward supplies of goods or services or both under section 37 in Form GSTR-1 or using the invoice furnishing facility, if he has not furnished the return in Form GSTR-3B for preceding tax period.”

After CGST Rule-59(6) comes into effect, the system will check that whether GSTR-3B for the previous two monthly tax-periods has been filed by monthly filers or not. Quarterly filers will have to file GSTR-3B for the previous quarterly tax period. Failure to comply with these stipulations will result in restriction on filing GSTR-1 returns.

“This check will operate on clicking the SUBMIT button of GSTR-1 and the system will give an error message if the condition of Rule-59(6) is not met. It may be noted that records which have been saved in GSTR-1 will remain saved and filing of such records will be permitted after Rule-59(6) is complied with,” GSTN said.

Implementation of Rule-59(6) on the GST Portal will be completely automated, similar to the blocking and unblocking of e-way bill as per Rule-138E. Facility for filing of GSTR-1 will be restored immediately after filing of relevant GSTR-3B, without the need for separate approval from the tax officer in this regard.

GSTN asked taxpayers who have not filed their pending GSTR-3B, especially from period November 2020 and afterwards, to do so at the earliest.