KPTCE: Representation on glitches and hardship in payment of taxes & filing of returns

KSCAA has sent a representation to the The commissioner of Commercial Tax, on umpteen number of glitches and hardship in payment of taxes and filing of returns under Karnataka Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act, 1976 

KARNATAKA STATE
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS ASSOCIATION (R.)

Date: Wednesday, April 26, 2023

To,
Commissioner of Commercial Tax
Government of Karnataka

Respected Sir/Ma’am,

SUBJECT: Representation of challenges faced in complying with the provisions of the Karnataka Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act, 1976  (“KPTCE Act”)

The Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association (R) (in short `KSCAA’) is an association of Chartered Accountants, registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, in the year 1957. In the past, we have written to various authorities many times populating various issues, challenges and hardships being faced by the business community, while also suggesting possible solutions to the same.

We understand that the government is keen on introducing newer experiences for better governance and hence took the project of revamping the professional tax site. We acknowledge the good intentions of the government This is also aligns with the vision of our Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, who said ‘ it is necessary to reduce human intervention in processes and increase the use of modem and digital technologies.’ He said that a work culture based on this will further promote policy-driven governance.

We have received innumerable requests from our members that the site is very erratic for the past many days with umpteen OTP bottlenecks, this has resulted in the loss of mandate for professionals who are onerously responsible for tax payment of their clients and self.

The instances and issues have been listed here for your kind attention and further action

– There is difficulty even to open the e Prerana website (https://pt.kar.nic.in/);

– OTP for login post entering password can be avoided.

– Additional modes of payments should be allowed. (At present only Debit credits & Net banking is available).

– New GST registrations should be automatically linked with the PT portal. Presently, it is being flagged as ‘invalid GST’;

– An option to save the submissions/updates on the stage-wise basis to not lose the work and to avoid filling the same once again.

– Also, while doing PT Enrollment for GSTIN once we generate OTP, the website shows an error. We won’t be able to enter OTP and proceed;

– There was an issue in changing the mobile number (that with already linked on the GST portal) for OTP generation.

– Provision for sending OTP’s on registered email ids as registered on the GST portal.

– It has been provided that a separate login will be generated for professionals for better compliance on behalf of clients, which has not been done to date.

– Payment receipt is not available after making payment on the same portal.

We acknowledge the proactive action in addressing a few of the issues mentioned above which have been addressed in the recent past and many remain open even today.

It is important to acknowledge these difficulties and work towards finding a resolution in view of the limitation (30.04.2023), we implore your goodself to

a. provide fully functional error free Website

b. Remove/reduce the frequent OTP and make the website easy to operate and file return

c. Strengthen the grievance redressal module

d. Until such time provide suitable extended time

We the members of Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association, on behalf of the entire Chartered Accountants fraternity and also on behalf of the trade and industry in the state of Karnataka appeal to your good selves to kindly consider our above grievances. Resolution of the same will be a major step in the direction of ‘Ease of doing business’.

Yours sincerely,

For Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association