QRMP Scheme: Filing GST Returns Quarterly Instead of Monthly

Filing GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B every month is manageable for a business with a high transaction volume. For a smaller business raising a handful of invoices a month, the same cycle can feel like disproportionate paperwork for the size of the business. QRMP is the option for exactly that gap: an eligible taxpayer can file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B once a quarter instead of once a month, while still paying tax every month. The filing frequency drops. The obligation to pay doesn't. This guide covers who can opt in, how the monthly payment works without a monthly return to calculate it from, what the Invoice Furnishing Facility does for your buyers, and when quarterly filing genuinely helps versus when it just trades one complexity for another. For how GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B relate on the standard monthly cycle, our dedicated guide covers that separately; this one focuses on the quarterly alternative.

What the QRMP Scheme Actually Is

QRMP stands for Quarterly Return Filing and Monthly Payment of Taxes. The name describes the trade-off exactly: an eligible registered person can file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B once every quarter instead of once every month, but the obligation to pay tax doesn't move to a quarterly rhythm with it. For the first two months of each quarter, you deposit tax through a simplified monthly challan, and only in the third month, when GSTR-3B for the quarter is actually filed, does the return reconcile what you owe against what you've already paid. A business on QRMP files four GSTR-3B returns a year instead of twelve, but still makes close to twelve tax payments.

QRMP is a separate choice from the composition scheme, even though both reduce how often you file. Composition taxpayers already file quarterly by default, through CMP-08 and an annual GSTR-4, and give up input tax credit as part of that trade-off. QRMP keeps you a regular taxpayer in every other respect, ITC included, and changes only how often GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B get filed. Our composition scheme guide covers that comparison in full.

Who Can Opt Into QRMP

QRMP is available to a registered person whose aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year falls below a specified threshold, currently placed at up to ₹5 crore across our own return filing guides. Thresholds are set by notification and are exactly the kind of figure that gets copied forward in outdated articles long after they change, so confirm the current limit on the GST portal before relying on it for a filing decision. This is a return-filing frequency rule, not a tax rate, and wasn't touched by the GST 2.0 rate rationalisation of September 2025: whichever frequency you file on, the rates you charge still follow the current post-GST 2.0 slab structure, not whatever a pre-2025 article might describe.

Turnover here is calculated the same way as for GST registration generally (see our registration threshold guide): aggregate turnover across all your business verticals under the same PAN, all-India. QRMP is opted into, or out of, separately for each GSTIN, so a multi-state business can run QRMP in one state and monthly filing in another. The choice is made at the start of a quarter, holds for that quarter, and generally can't change mid-quarter once begun. You also need to be current on your filings to opt in. Check the portal for the exact opt-in window ahead of the quarter you're switching for, rather than relying on an old article's cutoff dates.

How the Monthly Tax Payment Actually Works

Filing quarterly doesn't mean paying quarterly. For the first two months of each quarter, a QRMP taxpayer deposits tax using a simplified challan, Form GST PMT-06, choosing between two methods for arriving at the amount to pay.

• Fixed Sum Method: the GST portal auto-generates a pre-filled challan, a system-calculated amount based on your net cash tax liability from the previous quarter (or the previous month, if you were filing monthly right before switching to QRMP). You don't calculate anything yourself, you just pay what the portal proposes. A fresh registration with no prior period to base this on will need to self-assess instead.
• Self-Assessment Method: instead of accepting the system's estimate, you work out your actual tax liability for that month from real sales and the input tax credit genuinely available, and pay that instead. This suits a business whose monthly sales are uneven enough that a flat carried-over estimate would meaningfully overpay or underpay.

Whichever method you use, no return is filed alongside that payment: it's a challan-only deposit into your electronic cash ledger. Reconciliation happens only when GSTR-3B for the full quarter is filed in month three: the quarter's real liability and ITC are reported, what you've already deposited is adjusted for, and the difference is paid or carried forward. The Fixed Sum Method is generally a safe harbour here: pay it on time and you're not expected to owe interest even if actual liability turns out higher. Underpay through Self-Assessment, though, and a genuine shortfall can attract interest at reconciliation.

The Invoice Furnishing Facility: Keeping Your Buyers' Credit on Track

A quarterly GSTR-1 creates a real problem for your buyers, not just for you. Input tax credit reaches a buyer only after your sale shows up in their GSTR-2B, which is built from suppliers' GSTR-1 filings. File GSTR-1 only once a quarter, and a buyer who bought from you in month one would otherwise wait until the third month's GSTR-1, and longer still for GSTR-2B: a real credit-timing disadvantage, even though you've done nothing wrong.

The Invoice Furnishing Facility exists to close that gap. It lets a QRMP taxpayer optionally upload B2B invoices monthly for the first two months of the quarter, without that upload counting as a full GSTR-1 filing. Those invoices then reach your buyers' GSTR-2B on roughly the same monthly rhythm a monthly filer would give them, even though your own GSTR-1 is still filed only once, in month three. B2C sales aren't part of IFF, since there's no buyer GSTIN or ITC claim to protect.

This is the detail that decides whether QRMP sits comfortably with your business or becomes friction with your customers. Buyers who aren't chasing monthly ITC barely notice the quarterly gap. Buyers who reconcile ITC every month will notice it, and for them, using IFF consistently stops being optional and becomes close to a practical requirement.

QRMP vs Monthly Filing: Making the Right Call

Put side by side, the practical differences between QRMP and staying on monthly filing come down to how often you file, how you pay in between, and how visible your invoices are to the people buying from you.

None of this changes what you ultimately owe. QRMP doesn't lower your tax liability or your ITC entitlement, only the shape of the compliance work around it. The decision comes down to which shape fits your business better.

1. Transaction volume: a small, manageable number of invoices a month means quarterly filing cuts your compliance workload without changing what you owe.
2. Who buys from you: consumers and small businesses that don't track monthly ITC rarely notice the quarterly gap. Larger corporates with a monthly ITC reconciliation process will, so plan on using the IFF every month, or weigh whether monthly filing is simpler than maintaining that discipline.
3. Cash flow predictability: if your monthly sales swing significantly, the Self-Assessment Method lets you pay closer to actual liability each month, at the cost of calculating it yourself.
4. Team bandwidth: quarterly filing means one larger reconciliation every three months instead of a shorter monthly one. If your books don't stay current between filings, that catch-up can end up harder than staying on top of things monthly.
5. Multi-state operations: eligibility and the opt-in choice apply per GSTIN, so you can run QRMP in one state and monthly filing in another, depending on each registration's own turnover and pattern.

QRMP genuinely suits the business it's built for: lower volume, straightforward invoicing, buyers who don't need monthly visibility into your sales. For everyone else, it can still work, but only if the IFF discipline holds every month, not just when someone remembers. If you're not confident it will, staying on the standard monthly cycle covered in our GSTR-1 vs GSTR-3B guide is often the simpler default.