GST returns barred permanently after three years: the unbarring application exists, but do not plan around it

If you have any old GST return still pending, this is worth reading today rather than tomorrow.

Because after three years it can no longer be filed at all. The portal will not accept it. There is not even the option of paying a late fee.

# The legal basis, and the timeline

This is not new law. It came through the Finance Act 2023, which inserted a time limit into four sections of the CGST Act:

• Section 37 — outward supplies (GSTR-1)
• Section 39 — returns (GSTR-3B and others)
• Section 44 — annual return (GSTR-9 / 9C)
• Section 52 — TCS statement (GSTR-8)

The limit: three years from the original due date.

# Which returns are covered

Almost all of them:

Note that GSTR-9 and 9C are included. So it is not only monthly compliance — the annual return itself gets permanently closed off. And without GSTR-9 that year's record is never complete.

# What follows once a return is barred

This is not simply one missing return. Consider the chain:

1. Your customers do not get ITC for that period — GSTR-1 was never filed, so the invoice never reached their GSTR-2B. That becomes your commercial problem, not theirs.
2. The annual return for that year is never completed — the reconciliation stays permanently open
3. The department's non-filer record persists — and shows up in every future scrutiny
4. Best-judgement assessment under Section 62 — the officer can determine liability, and you have no return with which to contest it
5. Risk of registration cancellation on continued non-filing

And most importantly: the liability does not disappear. The return closed; the tax demand did not.

# The Unbarring Application — what it is and what it is not

Around February 2026 a new module appeared on the GST portal: Services → Returns → "Application for Unbarring of GST Returns".

You can request that a barred period be reopened.

Now understand it properly:

# ITC is an entirely separate problem

This is the most confused point in the whole area, so take it slowly.

Which means: the ITC has usually died long before.

If your FY 2022-23 return has just become barred, the ITC for that year expired in November 2023 — two years earlier. Even if the return is unbarred, the old ITC does not come back.

Two separate rules, two separate deadlines. Fixing one does not fix the other.

# And do not rely on the 16(5) / 16(6) relief either

Relief for ITC came through Sections 16(5) and 16(6), and many people read it as a general escape route.

It is close-ended.

It applied only to ITC for FY 2017-18 through FY 2020-21 — a specific one-time amnesty addressing the confusion of GST's early years. It does not apply to later years.

If you have blocked ITC from FY 2022-23 or FY 2023-24, 16(5) and 16(6) will not help.

# A 30-minute audit to run today

1. Log in to the GST portal → Services → Returns → View Filed Returns
2. Review filing history for every return type — GSTR-1, 3B, 9, 9C and whatever else applies to you
3. Note every gap — which periods are pending
4. For each pending period, compute original due date + three years — how much time is left
5. Anything due to be barred within six months, file this month — late fee and all
6. For anything already barred, start work on an unbarring application with a documented reason

Written by

Prabhakar Kumar

Chartered Accountant (ICAI, Nov 2019)

Founder of VittSphere Technologies. Practicing CA serving 200+ MSME clients across Pune. 86% win-rate at AO and CIT(A) level tax appeals. Writes on Indian taxation, capital gains, and personal finance.