New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI): The first tax returns under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime can be filed from Saturday and the facility will remain open till August 20, GST Network CEO Navin Kumar said today.

Businesses can start filing their first GST returns and pay taxes for July on the portal of GST Network -- the IT infrastructure provider for the new indirect tax regime, beginning August 5, he told PTI here.

To make compliance easy for businesses, the GST Council has allowed businesses to initially file their returns on self-assessment basis in the first two months of the GST rollout.

So, the GST returns for July and August will be filed on the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) portal by filling up GSTR 3B form.

"We will start the facility of filing interim returnform GSTR 3B by August 5 and any registered entity who has transacted business in July will have to file the return by August 20," Kumar told PTI.

GSTN has tied up with 25 agency banks authorised by the RBI to collect taxes, he said.

"We have tied up with all major banks, both private and public. The facility for tax payment is already on andIntegrated GST is being collected. Along with filing of returns by August 20, payments for central and state GST will also come in," said Kumar, in-charge of the biggest technology backbone created for the new indirect tax regime.

Over 71.30 lakh excise, service tax and VAT payers have migrated to the GSTN portal with 13 lakh fresh registrations.

The final GST returns for July will have to be filed by these businesses by September 5 instead of August 10.

Companies will have to file sale invoice for August with GST Network by September 20 instead of September 10earlier.

The sales returns for September will have to be filed by October 10.