GST return: Deadline extended till May 22 over technical glitch

Second instance this year when govt has extended deadline due to tech snags.

New Delhi | May 19, 2018 01:58 AM IST

4 min read

The tenant had sought an advance ruling on whether GST was applicable on compensation paid by developer for the damages paid for delay in project.(Representational Image)

Following technical glitches on the online portal of GST Network (GSTN) under Goods and Services Tax (GST), the government extended the due date for filing of the monthly summary return GSTR-3B for the month of April by two days to May 22. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in a tweet said, “Owing to the technical issues being faced by taxpayers during the filing of GSTR-3B, it has been decided to extend the last date for filing of return in Form GSTR-3B for the month of April, by two days i.e. till 22nd May, 2018 in the interest of taxpayers.”

This is the second instance in this calendar year when the government has extended the filing deadline for GSTR-3B return owing to technical glitches. In January this year, the government had extended the filing deadline for GSTR-3B return for December by two days to January 22 after the GSTN said that the portal faced technical issues related to return module, while other services such as payment and registration operated smoothly.

In an official statement on Friday, the government said that certain technical issues being faced by the taxpayers during the filing of FORM GSTR-3B for April were brought to the notice of the competent authority. “In order to resolve the same, emergency maintenance is being carried out on the system,” it said.

GST Tech, which is the official twitter handle for IT related queries on GST tweeted: “Due to emergency maintenance activity, GST Portal will be unavailable on 18th May, 2018, from 2:45 PM to 3:15 PM. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.”

Many users took to Twitter to complain about the technical issues faced on the portal since it was the last working day to file returns before the initial deadline on May 20. Some said that the issues were there since last two days but were acknowledged late. “Since last two days, the data was not getting saved on the portal. Whatever was being filed online as part of the return filing process was not being getting saved,” an industry expert, who did not want to be named, said.

Tax experts said the deadline extension will bring relief for the taxpayers. Abhishek Jain, Partner, EY said, “The due date for filing of GSTR-3B for the month of April has been extended by two days. This extension is expected to bring substantial relief to those taxpayers who were struggling with system issues on the last working day (for most) before the due date for filing on May 20.”
The GST mop-up in April, the first month of the current financial year, was recorded at Rs 1.03 lakh crore. Accordingly the Rs 1.03 lakh crore GST collected in April reflects the central GST and state GST which accrued in March. The GST collections which accrue in April and collected in May will be released on June 1.

From 2018-19 that began last month, the government has shifted to a cash basis of accounting where revenues accrued at the completion of a month would be taken on record immediately at the end of the month.

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