Centre kicks off ‘GST Pakhwada’ to mark 8 years of tax reforms

New Delhi: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) kicked off a nationwide ‘GST Pakhwada’ on Monday which will continue till June 30, as part of the upcoming GST Day celebrations on July 1.

The two-week campaign aims to spread awareness about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and assist taxpayers in resolving their queries.

Helpdesks have been set up at all Central GST (CGST) Commissionerates across the country to offer guidance and support.

The initiative also commemorates eight years of GST implementation in India, a landmark reform that unified the country’s indirect tax system in 2017.

This outreach comes at a time when the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has announced significant changes to the return filing process that will take effect from the July 2025 tax period.

From that point onward, the monthly GST payment form GSTR-3B will become non-editable.

This means businesses will no longer be able to manually change any details after filing. Instead, the form will be auto-filled based on sales data from other forms like GSTR-1, and corrections will have to be made in advance through form GSTR-1A, according to CBIC.

GSTN said this step is being taken to improve accuracy between GST returns and prevent revenue leakages.

Additionally, a strict time limit is being introduced for filing returns. Starting July 2025, taxpayers will not be allowed to file any GST returns more than three years after the due date.

This rule will apply to all types of returns, including GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-9, GSTR-4, and others. This change was part of the Finance Act, 2023 and will now be enforced on the GST portal.

Taxpayers have been advised to review their records and submit any pending returns before the new rules come into force to avoid being permanently locked out.

–IANS