Monthly vs quarterly GST filers (QRMP): why a quiet vendor may not be late

Most taxpayers file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B every month. Taxpayers who qualify can instead choose the Quarterly Return Filing and Monthly Payment of Tax scheme, known as QRMP. It was recommended by the GST Council on 5 October 2020 and took effect from 1 January 2021.

The Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) is optional. It lets a quarterly filer upload business-to-business invoices and credit and debit notes for the first and second months of a quarter so that buyers can claim credit sooner. It is due by the 13th of the following month and lapses after that.

As the GST portal states it, the scheme is open to a taxpayer whose aggregate turnover, at PAN level, was up to ₹5 crore in the current and preceding financial year, and who has filed the last due GSTR-3B. For a newly registered business the portal bases it on expected turnover. The threshold is the portal's wording as we read it on 4 October 2026; check the linked FAQ for the figure in force when you read this.

The choice is the taxpayer's own. It is made on the GST portal under Returns, "Opt-in for Quarterly Return", and a GST practitioner cannot make it on their behalf. It can be made during a window before each quarter (1 February to 30 April for April-June, 1 May to 31 July for July-September, 1 August to 31 October for October-December, and 1 November to 31 January for January-March), only one quarter at a time, and not once GSTR-1 data has already been saved for that quarter. It stays in force until the taxpayer changes it.

These are the rules as they stand; the government can extend dates for a particular period by notification, and it has done so, so treat a date a few days past these as unproven rather than late.

For the quarterly GSTR-3B, the 22nd applies to principal places of business in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. The 24th applies to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, the north-eastern states, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Delhi.

Read a quarterly vendor's history as if they were monthly and two of every three months appear to be missing. Any rule of thumb such as "flag a vendor with no return in the last two months" will flag every healthy quarterly filer. This is why our compliance summary gives you the months since the last filed period and leaves the threshold to you, rather than labelling anyone inactive.

The same rule works in the other direction. If you know a vendor is on the quarterly schedule, a longer gap since the last filed period than you would accept from a monthly filer can be normal, because the return for a quarter is not due until the following month. The law itself draws this line: under Rule 21 a registration becomes liable to cancellation after six continuous months without returns for a monthly filer, but after only two continuous tax periods without returns for a quarterly filer, which is about six months of calendar time but measured in quarters.

The filing-preference endpoint returns the monthly or quarterly choice for each quarter of a financial year. Here is the live response for 33AAACC1206D1ZN, called on 4 October 2026 for 2025-26:

This one is a monthly filer in every quarter. A quarterly filer returns "Quarterly" for the quarters it has opted into. Because the choice is made quarter by quarter, a vendor can switch, so look at the quarter you care about rather than assuming. For financial years before the scheme existed the list is empty.

The practical order is: get the preference for the quarter, then read the return history against that schedule. Our companion post on reading a vendor's return history shows what each field means.

{"success":true,"gstin":"33AAACC1206D1ZN","fy":"2025-26","filing_preference":[
  {"quarter":"Q1","preference":"Monthly"},
  {"quarter":"Q2","preference":"Monthly"},
  {"quarter":"Q3","preference":"Monthly"},
  {"quarter":"Q4","preference":"Monthly"}
]}