Businesses that default on filing summary return and paying monthly GST will not be able to file GSTR-1 sales return of the succeeding month from January 1 next year. 

The GST Council, in its Lucknow meeting on Friday, has decided to take a host of measures to streamline compliance, including mandatory Aadhaar authentication for businesses to file refund claims. 

These moves would help prevent revenue leakage due to evasion of GST, which was launched on July 1, 2017. 

The GST Council has decided to amend Rule 59 (6) of the Central GST Rules with effect from January 1, 2022 to provide that a registered person shall not be allowed to furnish Form GSTR-1, if he has not furnished the return in Form GSTR-3B for the preceding month. 

Currently, the law restricts filing of return for outward supplies or GSTR-1 in case a business fails to file GSTR-3B of preceding two months. 

Businesses file GSTR-1 of a particular month by the 11th day of the subsequent month. GSTR-3B, through which businesses pay taxes, is filed in a staggered manner between 20^th and 24^th day of the succeeding month. 

The GST Council has also made Aadhaar authentication of GST registration mandatory for being eligible for filing refund claim and application for revocation of cancellation of registration. 

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had notified Aadhaar authentication for GST registration with effect from August 21, 2020. 

The notification also provided that in case businesses do not provide Aadhaar number, GST registration would be granted only after physical verification of the place of business. 

The GST Council has now decided that businesses will have to link their GST registration with biometric Aadhaar for claiming tax refunds as also applying for revocation of cancellation of registration.