New Delhi, Oct 19 : The government on Sunday extended the deadline for filing the GSTR-3B tax return form by five days.

Now, taxpayers can file their returns and make tax payments for the month of September, as well as for the July-September quarter, by October 25.

This announcement was made by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) through a notification on Sunday.

The CBIC also posted the update on social media platform X, saying, "@cbic india extends the GSTR-3B filing deadline."

GSTR-3B is a summary return that businesses registered under GST must file either monthly or quarterly.

The usual due dates are the 20th, 22nd, and 24th of each month, depending on the category of the taxpayer.

The deadline extension was widely expected this time, as the original due date, October 20, falls during the Diwali festival, when businesses and offices are usually closed or operating with limited staff.

Experts said that this move is likely to provide relief to many businesses and tax professionals who were finding it difficult to meet the deadline during the festive period.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, GSTN explained that while GSTR-3B will still be auto-filled based on sales data from forms like GSTR-1, any changes or corrections must be made before filing, using form GSTR-1A.

This revised data will then automatically show up in GSTR-3B. Once that is done, taxpayers will no longer be able to edit the GSTR-3B manually, as is currently possible.

'For the July 2025 tax period, to be filed in August 2025, the auto-populated tax liability in GSTR-3B will be final and cannot be changed after filing,' the advisory stated on June 7.

This move is aimed at improving data accuracy between different GST forms and preventing tax leakage.

/IANS