BENGALURU: The ministerial panel formed by the GST Council to lay down a roadmap to resolve glitches in the GSTN system has ruled out any further deadline extensions, adding that 80 per cent of the issues faced by businesses on the GSTN portal will be resolved by the end of October.
The Group of Ministers (GoM), led by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, pointed out that officials from Infosys, which built the IT network that is the backbone of the GST regime, will work on all problems identified in the system. “Infosys has assured us that they will take care of all these things,” Modi said.
However, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia ruled out any further extensions in deadlines. “We have kept long deadlines for GST filing... There will be no extension later,” Adhia said, adding that businesses have six months to file their own returns. The GST Council has allowed businesses to file GSTR-3B, which is a self-assesment of their sale and purchases, till December. The other returns (GSTR1 dealing with supplies made, GSTR2 relating to purchases and GSTR3, the comprehensive compilation of transactions) for July, have to be filed on 10 October, 31 October, and 10 November respectively. The last date for filing GSTR 3B summary return for August-the second month of GST implementation-is 20 September, according to a calendar published by the government on Friday.
The GoM also urged taxpayers to avoid waiting until the last date to file returns, explaining that the practice leads to heavy traffic on the portal and stalls the system. “There is a general tendency among people to file returns on the last day, leading to a heavy rush,” Modi pointed out.
According to Modi, around 47 lakh GSTR 3B returns were filed for the month of July, but only 3.05 lakh returns have so far been filed for the month of August. The five-member GoM will continue to meet every fortnight to oversee the resolution of problems and the next meeting is scheduled for the first week of October.