With several firms reporting technical glitches on the Goods and Services Tax return filing website on Saturday ahead of the impending Sunday deadline, the government has extended the last date for filing the first tax returns under the GST regime to August 25.
August 20 was the last date for paying taxes and filing GST returns for the month of July – the maiden month of the new indirect tax regime.
However, several registered taxpayers were unable to file those returns on Saturday on the GST.gov.in website, which by evening had admitted technical glitches. “We are experiencing slowness and are working to improve the response. Please bear with us,” a scroll on the website announced.
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On Saturday afternoon, the GST network’s tech support twitter handle also had informed users, in response to a spate of queries: “The GST portal is experiencing some issues, kindly try after sometime.”
By evening, the finance ministry issued a statement about the deadline being extended to August 25 ‘since it is the first return to be filed under GST’ and ‘taxpayers and tax practitioners have requested for few more days to file their return.’
The ministry said it had also received requests from States that have been hit by floods to extend the last date for return filing, while Jammu and Kashmir had sought more time as it had passed the GST-enabling laws after the tax was rolled out on July 1.
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“Some technical glitches are also experienced by last minute return filers. In order to take care of these issues, the GST Implementation Committee, consisting of State and Central Government officers, has taken a decision to extend the last date for payment of the GST for the month of July 2017 to 25th August, 2017,” the statement said.
The chief of a Mumbai-based small unit trying to file the GST returns since Saturday morning said he was initially able to login to his account, but was unable to upload the returns. By evening, he wasn’t even able to log in. Firms like this heaved a sigh of relief after the finance ministry’s decision to stretch the deadline, but were worried about the GST portal’s ability to cope with the returns’ workload.
“Due to the last minute GST return filing rush, the GST Network developed some technical snag because of which the taxpayers were not able to pay tax and file their returns,” said Abhishek Jain, tax partner at EY.
“In order not to face any last moment technological difficulty in submission of return, all tax payers are requested to kindly file their returns well before” the deadline “and not wait for the last date,” the finance ministry advised GST payers.