Govt considers extending April GST payment deadline

As taxpayers face technical glitch on the goods and services tax (GST) portal, the government on Tuesday said it is considering an extension of the April tax payment deadline and has directed Infosys for early resolution of the problem.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said a technical glitch has been reported by Infosys in generation of April 2022 GSTR-2B and auto-population of GSTR-3B on the portal.

“Infosys has been directed by Govt for early resolution. Technical team is working to provide GSTR-2B & correct auto-populated GSTR-3B at the earliest,” the CBIC tweeted.

GSTR-2B is an auto-drafted input tax credit (ITC) statement available to every GST registered entity based on the information furnished by their suppliers in their respective sales return form GSTR-1.

The GSTR-2B statement is usually made available to businesses on the 12th day of the succeeding month, based on which they can claim ITC while paying taxes and filing GSTR-3B. GSTR-3B is filed in staggered manner between the 20th, 22nd, and 24th of every month for different categories of tax payers.

“Considering the difficulties faced by taxpayers in filing their GSTR-3B for the month of April 2022, a proposal to extend the due date of filing GSTR-3B for April 2022 is under active consideration,” CBIC tweeted.

On Sunday, GST Network, which provides the technology backbone for GST, had issued an advisory saying that in a few cases, certain records are not reflected in the GSTR-2B statement for April 2022 and asked taxpayers to file GSTR- 3B return on self-assessment basis.

“The technical team is working to resolve this issue for the impacted taxpayers and generate fresh GSTR-2B at the earliest. In the interim, affected taxpayers interested in filing GSTR-3B are requested to file the return on self-assessment basis using GSTR- 2A,” the GSTN had said. GSTR-2A is a system generated statement of inward supplies.

In 2015, Infosys was awarded a Rs1,380 crore contract to build and maintain the GST system.

“Technical glitches on the portal would derail the tax filings for millions of taxpayers in the current month. For the benefit of all the businesses, the government must either extend the timelines for tax filings or waive the late fees payable on delayed filings,” said Rajat Mohan, seniore partner, AMRG & Associates.

THERE IS A GLITCH IN GENERATION OF APRIL 2022 GSTR2B AND THE AUTOPOPULATION OF GSTR-3B ON THE PORTAL