GST and the Misery in Filing Returns

INTRODUCTION

It appears that most of the businesses, professionals, GST Council and the Government have not yet understood the complexity of the working of GST Network Portal (www.gst.gov.in).

There are several issues faced by the registered persons under the New GST regime with regards to the filing of GST Returns.

10th January 2017 being the due date for filing returns of GSTR 1 for registered persons, both having a turnover of upto and above Rs. 1.5 crores (Notification No. 71/2017, 72/2017, Central Tax), the registered persons had faced lots of hindrances in the filing of GST Returns, the trade and industry all over the nation were in a depression.

Especially filing GSTR 1 has reached to the situation of panic for the businesses, professionals and GST Practitioners etc.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED WHILE FILING THE RETURNS

Several major problems encountered while filing returns are,

The speed of the portal is so regretful that it takes hours to validate the uploaded JSON file through the option of Prepare Offline option.

And considering it takes prolonged delay so the details are again being uploaded, sometimes the data uploaded appear twice, and since there is no option of “delete all” feature and all the data are to be deleted manually one by one.

The GST Returns details can be either uploaded in the portal through preparing it through offline service or online, once the invoice is being uploaded then the option of “select all or selected specific invoice and delete all or delete the selected invoice” is not available. Thus each and every particular invoice uploaded has to be manually deleted, which is time-consuming and lengthens the work and thereafter it will take some time to show the output on the screen.

There are several additional technical glitches confronted in the GST portal. When there is some error in the file extracted from the software in Excel or CSV format and then uploaded to the GST Offline Tool to convert into JSON format, the GST Offline Tool provides the JSON and displays no error and when it is uploaded to the portal only part of the details appear and the rest don’t and it becomes a restless struggle to discover what is the error.

GST TRANSITIONAL CREDIT

Many assesses were not in a position to file the GST Tran-1 because of the system glitch which was present in the form itself with respect to carrying forward of Credit of State Value added Tax as SGST in the New indirect tax regime. The GST Portal displayed “The Registration number is Invalid, Please provide a valid registration number of VAT under existing Law”, though the Vat registration number was correct in the GST Database.  The website was not allowing the assessee to submit the GST Tran-1. There have been various representations given by various forums to the board for rectifying the problem.

LATE FEES

The Late fees have been charged with filing the GST returns belatedly. It shall be agreed that if the default is in assessee’s part, the Late fees which are currently levied at the rate of Rs. 25 per day per act if there is a tax liability and Rs. 10 per day per act if the tax liability is Nil is valid. The GST portal doesn’t function well when the due date for filing the returns under GST approaches. The GST Council on its 23rd Council meeting held in Guwahati has made a good gesture by reducing the late fees from Rs.100 per day per act. But still, there are obstacles faced by assesses while filing the GST returns. Right now the Cost for not filing the GST returns due to system glitch has been borne by the assessee which is not ethically correct.

GSTR-1 FILING DATE

As per the latest Notification No. 72/2017 – Central Tax, dated 29-12-2017, the due date of filling the GSTR – 1 return had been extended from 31st December 2017 to 10th January 2018. But the issue is that the Board has included the month of November 2017 in the aforesaid notification and the inclusion of November month was not mentioned in the subject column of the notification and only when it has been read fully it is identified. The crucial information or amendments shall also be stated in the subject column of the notification details in the website and inclusion of November month was a shock to the trade and industry.  The board should have given time for the assessees as well as the professionals to file the GST returns without hurry.

SUGGESTIONS

a. It is suggested that the System glitch has to be rectified on war foot as it involves genuine hardship at the assessee level.

b. The functionality of deleting the invoices by selection or delete all option should be enabled in GST returns.

c. Allow a onetime window within the end of financial year itself for claiming the transitional credit of erstwhile act to be carried forward in the New Indirect Tax Regime.

d. The crucial information or amendments pertaining to notification shall also be stated in the subject column of the notification details on the website.

CONCLUSION

After just filing 50% of the returns of a month the whole nation is disappointed with the returns fling procedure and its functioning whose impact will be known in the future months when mismatch takes place and credit is to be reversed.

If this hardship continues then the dream of every Indian who imagined GST would bring a revolution in the Indian taxation system would always be an imagination.

It is a request from the business, the professionals to the Government, Council and the Board to solve the technical glitches and make it a GOOD AND SIMPLE TAX.

Authors-