The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has released an offline facility that will allow taxpayers to finalise their GSTR-3B forms on their own computers before uploading it onto the portal.
The deadline for the filing of the GSTR-3B form for September was October 20. Taxpayers have to file the summary GSTR-3B forms each month till January.
“This facility will provide an opportunity to the taxpayer to verify the details of GSTR 3B before filing and minimise chances of error,” said Prakash Kumar, CEO of GSTN. “To make the process of filing returns simpler, an Excel based offline utility has been introduced for filing the GSTR-3B on the GST Portal,” the GSTN said in a release. “The offline utility is designed to help taxpayers to prepare their GSTR-3B return on their computer system.” “The taxpayer can download the offline utility from the GST Portal under the Download Section,” the release added. “Taxpayers can open the GSTR-3B offline utility in their computer system, fill data and then create json file for uploading the same on GST Portal.”
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The GSTN added that the offline functions work best on Windows 7 and above and Microsoft Excel 2007 and above. The offline functionality comes against the background of the GST portal crashing repeatedly during the previous filing deadlines due to taxpayers logging on to the portal at the last minute to upload their final returns.