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IndiaAuditLens Law Library

Section 59 of the CGST Act, 2017

From the IndiaAuditLens Law Library

GST›CGST Act, 2017›Chapter XII, Assessment

At a glance

Bars, duties and time limits

  • 59Every registered person must self-assess taxes under the Act and furnish a section 39 return for each tax period, with the section 60 provisional-assessment exception.

Procedure, powers and definitions

  • 59The law does not settle whether furnishing a return itself discharges self-assessment or whether that duty can remain unfulfilled despite filing.

Section 59 requires every registered person to self-assess taxes under the Act and furnish a return for each tax period under section 39. Section 60 provides the provisional-assessment exception where the taxable person cannot determine value and requests that procedure. Section 59 commenced on 1 July 2017. The relationship between self-assessment and the act of furnishing a return remains unsettled.[1]

Text

The text below is the section as served by the CBIC tax information portal on 17 September 2026, with the portal's own amendment footnote markers (shown as small numerals before a bracket) and its footnotes.[1] The Act as published in the Gazette of India is the legal source.

Section 59, verbatim (show)

* Section 59. Self-assessment. - Every registered person shall self-assess the taxes payable under this Act and furnish a return for each tax period as specified under section 39.

*Enforced w.e.f. 1st July, 2017.

Questions to answer on the file

Questions a reviewer answers from the engagement file, grouped by the part of the section they come from. They describe what the section asks; they do not decide it.

Scope the section as a whole

Questions to answer on the file1 question
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The registered person and his self-assessment 59 first limb

Questions to answer on the file5 questions
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The return for each tax period 59 second limb

Questions to answer on the file3 questions
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Amendment history

The CBIC text carries 1 footnote. The table gives each in the source's own terms. Effective dates are as the footnotes state them.[1]

Amendments to section 59 as footnoted in the CBIC text
NoteChangeInstrumentEffective from
Enforced the section. There is no later amendment footnote on this section.—1st July, 2017
Provisions connected to Section 59
ProvisionConnectionWords that tie them
Section 39this provision requires Section 3959 "furnish a return for each tax period as specified under section 39"
Section 2this provision defined by Section 2 clause (11)s.2(11) "assessment means determination of tax liability under this Act and includes self-assessment"
Section 2this provision defined by Section 2 clause (106)s.2(106) "tax period means the period for which the return is required to be furnished"
Section 60this provision exception in Section 6060(1) "where the taxable person is unable to determine the value... he may request... payment of tax on provisional basis"

Circulars and notifications

No circular or notification in the CBIC repository is recorded as citing this section.

Unsettled questions

The words of section 59 do not answer this question. Where one decides a matter on the file, the answer depends on the position taken on it.

  1. Is the duty to self-assess discharged by furnishing the return under section 39, or is it a separate duty that can be failed although a return was furnished? The section joins the two by "and" and says nothing about the case where a return is furnished carrying figures the person did not himself assess.

See also

References

  1. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. "Section 59. Self-assessment". Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, CBIC tax information portal, with amendment footnotes 1 to 1. Retrieved 17 September 2026.

External links