—Guide
GST Returns Explained: GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-9 and Due Dates
Once you hold a GSTIN, every registered business in Telangana must file returns on the GST portal, even in months with no sales.
Which GST Returns Do You Actually File?
Once you hold a GSTIN, every registered business in Telangana must file returns on the GST portal, even in months with no sales. Of the roughly 22 forms in the GST law, most businesses only ever deal with three: GSTR-1 for sales, GSTR-3B for the summary and payment, and GSTR-9 for the annual return. Composition taxpayers file a different set.
- GSTR-1: reports outward supplies (sales invoices, credit and debit notes, exports). Filed by regular taxpayers, monthly or quarterly under QRMP.
- GSTR-3B: the summary of sales, input tax credit claimed and tax payable, and the return through which tax is paid. Filed by regular taxpayers, monthly or quarterly under QRMP.
- CMP-08: the quarterly tax payment statement. Filed by composition taxpayers.
- GSTR-4: the annual return for composition taxpayers.
- GSTR-9: the annual return consolidating the year. Mandatory for regular taxpayers with turnover above ₹2 crore, optional below.
- GSTR-9C: reconciles the annual return with audited accounts. Required for turnover above ₹5 crore.
GSTR-1: your sales
GSTR-1 lists every sale you made in the period at invoice level for business customers, in summary form for sales to consumers, plus exports, credit notes and debit notes. Its real job is downstream: the invoices you report appear in your customers' auto-drafted credit statement (GSTR-2B), so a late or wrong GSTR-1 stops your buyers from claiming input tax credit.
GSTR-3B: the summary and the payment
GSTR-3B is where money moves. It nets the tax on your sales against the input tax credit you are entitled to and settles the balance in cash from your electronic cash ledger. Since the July 2025 tax period, the sales figures in GSTR-3B are pulled from GSTR-1 and cannot be edited, so any correction to sales has to go through GSTR-1 or the amendment route, not GSTR-3B.
GSTR-9: the annual return
GSTR-9 pulls the year's monthly or quarterly filings into a single reconciliation of sales, credit and tax paid. It is mandatory for regular taxpayers with annual turnover above ₹2 crore and optional below that, and it is due by 31 December after the financial year ends. For FY 2025-26, that date is 31 December 2026.
Monthly Filing, the QRMP Scheme and Composition Returns
How often you file depends on your turnover and the scheme you choose.
Monthly filers
Regular taxpayers with aggregate turnover above ₹5 crore must file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B every month. Smaller taxpayers who prefer monthly filing can also stay on it by not opting into QRMP.
The QRMP scheme for small taxpayers
The Quarterly Return, Monthly Payment (QRMP) scheme lets taxpayers with aggregate turnover of up to ₹5 crore in the previous financial year file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B once a quarter instead of every month. That cuts the number of return filings from 24 a year to 8.
Paying tax is still monthly. For the first two months of each quarter you deposit tax using a PMT-06 challan by the 25th of the following month, using either the fixed-sum method or your actual self-assessed liability. The third month's tax is settled in the quarterly GSTR-3B. You choose to opt in or out on the portal at the start of a quarter, and the choice holds for that quarter.
QRMP has a catch for businesses that sell mainly to other registered businesses. Your invoices reach customers' credit statements only when the quarterly GSTR-1 is filed, so their input tax credit can be delayed. The optional Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) lets you upload business-to-business invoices for the first two months of a quarter by the 13th of the following month, with no late fee if you skip it. If most of your customers care about timely credit, monthly filing is often the friendlier choice even when you qualify for QRMP.
Composition taxpayers
Businesses on the composition scheme do not file GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B. They file Form CMP-08 each quarter to declare and pay their flat-rate tax, and one annual return, GSTR-4, after the year ends.
GST Return Due Dates
For most Telangana businesses, the calendar comes down to two dates a month for monthly filers: the 11th for GSTR-1 and the 20th for GSTR-3B. Quarterly filers follow a different set, and Telangana falls in the group with the earlier quarterly GSTR-3B date of the 22nd.
Monthly filers
- GSTR-1: 11th of the next month
- GSTR-3B: 20th of the next month
Quarterly (QRMP) filers
- GSTR-1: 13th of the month after the quarter
- Invoice Furnishing Facility (optional): 13th of the month after months 1 and 2 of the quarter
- Monthly tax payment (PMT-06): 25th of the month after months 1 and 2 of the quarter
- GSTR-3B: 22nd of the month after the quarter for Telangana (24th in some other states)
Composition taxpayers
- CMP-08: 18th of the month after the quarter
- GSTR-4: 30 April after the financial year
Annual returns
- GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C: 31 December after the financial year
For example, GSTR-1 for August 2026 was due on 11 September 2026 and GSTR-3B on 20 September 2026. A quarterly filer in Hyderabad files the July to September 2026 GSTR-1 by 13 October and GSTR-3B by 22 October.
Dates worth knowing beyond the calendar
- 30 November after the financial year is the last date to amend that year's invoices in GSTR-1 or claim that year's input tax credit in GSTR-3B. For FY 2025-26 that is 30 November 2026, so reconcile before then rather than during the annual return.
- Three-year filing window. From the returns due in the second half of 2025, the portal bars filing any return more than three years after its original due date. Old pending returns should be cleared rather than left to age out.
- Extensions. The government regularly extends due dates for specific periods, states or taxpayer groups at short notice, so check the live calendar on the GST portal before assuming a date.
How to File GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B Each Period
Filing itself takes minutes. The time goes into getting the numbers right beforehand, so a repeatable monthly routine matters more than knowing the portal screens.
- Reconcile sales. Match your sales register against every invoice, credit note and debit note you raised in the period, including exports and any advances received.
- File GSTR-1 first. Log in at gst.gov.in, open the returns dashboard, pick the financial year and period, and enter or upload your invoice details. Review the summary and file with your Digital Signature Certificate or an Electronic Verification Code (EVC). File GSTR-1 before GSTR-3B, because GSTR-3B now draws its sales figures from it.
- Reconcile purchases against GSTR-2B. Compare your purchase register with the auto-drafted credit statement for the period. Input tax credit is now largely limited to what appears in GSTR-2B. A supplier who has not filed their own GSTR-1 will not appear, so credit on that purchase waits until they do.
- Check your cash ledger. Tax in GSTR-3B can only be paid if the electronic cash ledger holds enough balance, so create and pay your challan a day or two before the due date.
- File GSTR-3B. Review the pre-filled sales, enter your eligible input tax credit and any reverse-charge or exempt-supply details, offset the liability against credit and cash, then submit and file with DSC or EVC.
- Keep the acknowledgement. Save the filed return and payment details for your records, because notices and audits refer back to them.
A period with no sales still needs a return. Nil GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B can be filed by SMS, and skipping one still attracts a late fee and blocks the next period's filing.
You cannot revise a filed return
GST has no revision facility. If you find an error, you correct it in a later period: amend invoice details in a subsequent GSTR-1, or adjust the liability in a subsequent GSTR-3B, subject to the 30 November cut-off for the financial year concerned. That is why reviewing before you file matters more than in income tax.
Where small businesses go wrong
- Claiming credit that does not appear in GSTR-2B, which invites reversal with 18% interest
- Reporting business-to-business sales as consumer sales, which denies the buyer their credit
- Trying to fix sales figures in GSTR-3B instead of correcting GSTR-1
- Paying tax on the due date itself with an unfunded cash ledger
- Skipping nil returns in quiet months