Indore: Over 85 per cent tax-payers of the state have not filed their maiden GST return for the month of July due to glitches in the GSTN portal. The last date for filing the same is September 10. It is said that due to abnormal rush for filing of the return, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) portal developed technical glitches and frequent hanging of computer left the taxpayers red-faced.
Lakhs of traders, who had been protesting the harsh provisions of the GST, are now in a state of panic as the last date for filing of their GST return draws near (Sept 10). Now, they are facing difficulty while filing returns online due to glitches in the portal. This is not the first time, the traders are facing such problem. Earlier also, they faced similar problems while registering for the GST. CA JP Saraf, Secretary (SGST) Tax Practitioners Association, has said continuous errors have baffled the traders and tax consultants alike.
Elaborating the problem being faced by the traders, he said now there is no problem of understanding the GST, its calculation or in filing of return but repeated abort of the programme while filing return. Offline utility tools of the GSTN are not supporting the computer system of the tax payers. Website is running very slow and the GSTN system is taking 4 to 5 hours in generating error report after uploading the documents.
The GSTN portal window is not displaying data and the session expires before feeding the OTP. It means, the trader or tax consultant has to start the whole exercise afresh. CA Saraf said a tax consultant hardly files 1 or 2 returns a day due to technical glitches.
Malaiya assures to take-up issue in GST Council meeting
Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya has assured the traders that he would raise the matter of technical glitches in the next meeting of the GST Council. He gave this assurance to a delegation of the Commercial Tax Practitioners Association, which met him at Residency on Thursday. President of CTPA AK Gaud and Ashwin Lakhotia said that the delegation had apprised him in detail about the technical problems they were facing. They also suggested that the provisions should be made to allow the traders to file returns on a monthly basis.Malaiya appreciated their suggestion and assured them that he would present the proposal in the GST Council meeting.
Tax consultants apprise problem to technical team of SGST dept
On the advice of Commissioner of SGST Raghvendra Singh, tax consultants and their supporting staff reached the SGST Commissioner’s office and apprised the officials about the technical problems they were facing while filing the returns. A delegation of CTPA led by Gaud, Lakhotia and Amit Dave also met Singh and informed him about the problems. Singh advised them to let him know about the technical team of his department, so that he can understand the nature of problem and find out remedial measures.
