Service Tax Return can be filed even for the period prior to registration

CBEC has accepted the Service Tax returns for the period July-September, 2012, which were rejected by system on the sole ground that these returns were filed for the period prior to the dates of registration of the assessees, as valid returns. These returns have been reprocessed in ACES and the status of these returns is being shown in the systems as ‘filed’. These assessees, need not file the returns again for the same period and they can view the status of their returns in ACES under ‘View XML Status’ option. However, if the returns were rejected for any other reason, the assessees are required to take corrective action as per the reasons of rejection.