Government of India

Ministry of Finance

(Department of Revenue)

S.O.(E).––WHEREAS, sub-section (1) of section 44 of the Central Goods and ServicesTax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017) (hereafter in this Order referred to as the said Act) provides thatevery registered person, other than an Input Service Distributor, a person paying tax undersection 51 or section 52, a casual taxable person and a non-resident taxable person, shall furnishan annual return for every financial year electronically in such form and manner as may beprescribed on or before the thirty-first day of December following the end of such financial year;

AND WHEREAS, for the purpose of furnishing of the annual return electronically forevery financial year as referred to in sub-section (1) of section 44 of the said Act, the electronicsystem to be developed is at the advanced stage and is likely to be made operational by the 31stJanuary, 2019 as a result whereof, the said annual return for the period from the 1st July, 2017 tothe 31st March, 2018 could not be furnished by the registered persons, as referred to in the saidsub-section (1) and because of that, certain difficulties have arisen in giving effect to theprovisions of the said section;

NOW, THEREFORE, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 172 of the CentralGoods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the Central Government, on recommendations of theCouncil, hereby makes the following Order, to remove the difficulties, namely:––

1. Short title.––This Order may be called the Central Goods and Services Tax (Removalof Difficulties) Order, 2018.

2. In section 44 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, after sub-section (2),the following Explanation shall be inserted, namely:––

“Explanation.- For the purposes of this section, it is hereby declared that theannual return for the period from the 1st July, 2017 to the 31st March, 2018 shall be furnished onor before the 31st March, 2019.”.