The working GST reference, with the date, the rule, and the reason side by side.

Due dates of the returns

Ordinary due dates fixed by the Act and Rules, followed below by the unified month-wise due date table for all major returns with notification references where extended and a financial-year dropdown selector (FY 2017-18 to FY 2026-27).

Month-wise due dates of all major returns, with notification reference where extended (FY 2017-18 to FY 2026-27)

An ordinary due date is only the starting point. In practice, GSTR-1, IFF, GSTR-1A, GSTR-3B, PMT-06, CMP-08, GSTR-4, GSTR-5, GSTR-6, GSTR-7, GSTR-8, ITC-04, GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C have all seen structural changes or notified extensions across financial years. A return filed on or before an extended due date carries no late fee and no delayed-return interest for the extended days. Select a financial year from the dropdown below to view every month and quarter in a single unified table, together with the CBIC Central Tax notification wherever a due date was extended.

Late fee and interest, the whole history since 01.07.2017

The rate that applies is the one in force for the tax period, not the one in force today. A period from 2018 is computed on the 2018 position.

Late fee on GSTR-3B and GSTR-1, how it changed

Late fee on the other returns

Interest, how it changed

Late fee as it stands today

Interest as it stands today

SCN & order due dates. Sections 73, 74 and 74A

For practical use, this section separates the latest SCN date from the latest order date. Section 74 applies to periods up to FY 2023-24; Section 74A applies from FY 2024-25 onward.

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Appeals

Time limit for taking credit

The conditions in Section 16(2)

• (a) possession of a tax invoice or debit note
• (aa) the details have been furnished by the supplier and appear in the recipient's GSTR-2B, which makes GSTR-2B, not GSTR-2A, the statement to test credit against from 01.01.2022
• (b) the goods or services have been received
• (c) the tax has actually been paid to the Government
• (d) the return under Section 39 has been furnished
• second proviso, payment to the supplier within 180 days, failing which the credit is reversed under Rule 37

The reversal rules

Reverse charge, the main entries

e-Way Bill and the ledgers

The rate structure, 2017, and the September 2025 change

The 56th GST Council, meeting on 3 September 2025, replaced the four-tier structure with a merit rate of 5% and a standard rate of 18%, and introduced a special de-merit rate of 40% for selected luxury and sin supplies. The 12% and 28% slabs were withdrawn.

40% is not a standard rate. It applies to notified supplies only. The standard rate is 18%. Treating 40% as a general rate applies it to ordinary supplies.

What was in force, and when

*1.5% applies to cut and polished diamonds from 18.07.2022 (0.25% before that date), and continued after 22.09.2025. 3% on precious metals and 0.25% on rough diamonds continued throughout. So did the special composition scheme for bricks (6% without input tax credit and 12% with it) so a 12% rate on those goods after September 2025 is correct.

Tobacco and pan masala were left behind, then caught up

The September 2025 changes did not apply to pan masala, gutkha, cigarettes, chewing tobacco such as zarda, unmanufactured tobacco or bidi. Those goods kept their existing rates together with compensation cess until 31 January 2026, pending discharge of the compensation cess loan and interest obligations.

So 28% on a cigarette invoice dated October 2025 is correct, and a scrutiny that treats it as a withdrawn slab is wrong.

From the same date, Rule 31D computes the tax on notified tobacco and pan masala goods on the retail sale price, as (RSP × 40) ÷ 140, not on the transaction value. A figure worked out from the transaction value understates the tax on those goods. The additional excise duty on tobacco and the Health and National Security Cess on pan masala are levied outside GST and do not appear in a GST return.

Where a supply straddles a rate change

The invoice date does not settle the rate. Section 14 fixes the time of supply where the rate changes, by reference to which two of the three events (supply, invoice, payment) fall on the same side of the change. A rate that looks wrong for the invoice date may well be right, and the reverse is equally possible. Anything close to 22.09.2025 or 01.02.2026 has to be read with Section 14 in hand.

The 0.1% concession for supplies to a merchant exporter

Notifications No. 40/2017-Central Tax (Rate) and 40/2017-Union Territory Tax (Rate), with No. 41/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate), all dated 23 October 2017 and all still in force. Intra-State: 0.05% central plus 0.05% State, so 0.1% in all. Inter-State: 0.1% integrated tax.

It is not a rate slab and not zero-rating, it is a conditional partial exemption, and a domestic supply does not become zero-rated because the buyer intends to export. The conditions include registration of the recipient with an Export Promotion Council or Commodity Board, export within ninety days of the supplier's tax invoice, the supplier's GSTIN and invoice number on the shipping bill, and direct movement to the port or a registered warehouse.

Where the ninety days are not met the concession fails and it is the supplier, not the merchant exporter, who becomes liable for the differential tax with interest.