As per the recent amendments to Section 39(11) of the CGST Act, 2017, which took effect on October 1, 2023, taxpayers will no longer be permitted to file GST returns beyond three years from the due date of those returns. This change is outlined in Notification No. 28/2023 – Central Tax, dated July 31, 2023.
Additionally, the GST portal’s data retention policy allows taxpayer data to be viewed for a maximum of seven years. Following this policy, the GST portal will archive return data after this period, rendering it inaccessible thereafter.
The archival schedule is as follows:
- On August 1, 2024, return data for July 2017 will be archived, meaning it will no longer be available after seven years. Taxpayers should download any necessary data before this deadline.
- Following this, on or after September 1, 2024, return data for August 2017 will also be archived.
- This monthly archival process will continue, with return data for September 2017 being archived on October 1, 2024, and so on.