Govt urges taxpayers to file GST returns n time to avoid portal crash

Bengaluru: A group of minister headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, who met on Saturday to discuss the technical challenges of GST appealed to taxpayers to not wait for the eleventh hour to submit returns.

Traders who have migrated to the GST regime are required to file returns on the GSTN portal, which reportedly crashed as deadlines neared. Modi said “The systems had not crashed...and that the pressure was due to the scale of operations and last minute rush by tax payers”.

Urging taxpayers to file invoices on time he said "I want to appeal to tax payers that they should not wait for the last day. Because of that there is a heavy rush for the system. Only five days left for August filing and only 3.05 lakh have filed form 3B compared to more than 45 lakh in July...so there will be a rush".

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia also ruled out extension of the deadline to file GSTR-3B return. "We have already extended the period for GSTR-3B...People have to file their own self-assessed summary return till December, and there will not be any extension of time as far as GSTR-3B is concerned," he said.

The meeting also saw representation from Infosys which has been taking care of the IT infrastructure for GSTN. According to a report in NDTV, Adhia said "Infosys has not failed. They have been delivering very well. Hiccups will be there which need to be sorted out”.

Modi also said implementation of that new tax has been smooth. "22 crore invoices have been filed in two and a half months and 85 lakhs new and old dealers have been registered under GST," he added.

Another meeting is expected to take place soon to further smoothen the technical rollout of the country’s largest tax reform.