Giving effect to the decision taken by the GST Council in its 40th meeting held on 12-06-2020, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (‘CBIC’) has issued an order allowing one-time relaxation to taxpayers to restore their cancelled GST registration by 30-09-2020. The benefit can be available in those cases where the registration was cancelled on or before 12-06-2020.

Section 29 of the CGST Act, 2017 provides for cancellation of GST registration by the proper officer on various grounds. These grounds include contravention of the provisions of the Act, non-filing of returns for a specified period, not conducting business within 6 months of the date of registration taken voluntarily and obtaining registration through fraudulent means. Under section 30 of the CGST Act, 2017 a taxpayer can apply for revocation of cancellation of registration within 30 days from the date of service of the cancellation order.

Now in terms of Order No 01/2020-Central Tax dated 25-06-2020, 30 days for filing of an application for revocation of cancellation of registration will be counted from the date of service of the cancellation order or 31-08-2020, whichever is later. This benefit would be applicable only in those cases where cancellation order was passed up to 12-06-2020.

In the previous meeting held on 14-03-2020, the GST Council had given the above benefit wherein the application of revocation was required to be filed up to 30-06-2020 provided registration was cancelled up to 14-03-2020. Considering the lockdown the time limit has been extended. The taxpayers will now have time till 30-09-2020 to apply for restoring the GST registration cancelled up to 12-06-2020.