In a ruling that will have far reaching impact, the Rajasthan High Court has stepped in to address the grievances and extend the due date of filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for taxpayers in the state.

The Jodhpur bench of the Rajasthan High Court has directed the Revenue department to accept GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C till February 12, without late fees. The court further directed the department to file a detailed reply about their preparedness and GSTN capacity.

Being aggrieved by the functioning of the common portal, the Tax Bar Association had filed a PIL and apprised the Court regarding technical glitches in filing of GSTR 9/9C on GSTN portal and arbitrary fixation of last dates for various statutory compliances.

The HC considered the bottleneck with respect to the GSTN server capacity to handle the filing of pending returns within the deadline and also perused the screenshots submitted by the Petitioner regarding the unsuccessful attempts of the tax professionals time and again during the extended period.

Discarding the Government’s contention that the taxpayers should not wait for last date for filing of the return, the HC expressed that it is a legal right of the taxpayers to file return up till the last date.

“This is a rare ruling where a High Court has intervened and in a way, extended the statutory deadline set by the Government,” said Harpreet Singh, Partner, KPMG India.

The order will also have far reaching impact. “Judgments like these would have lot of persuasive value as, dealers would now be confident in approaching the Courts and proving their bona fide in case of non-compliances. It is now more or less settled that an assessee cannot be penalized on account of technical glitches at GSTN portal, which are beyond their control.” adds Singh.

According to the counsel for the Government, for the State of Rajasthan, 5.66 lakh taxpayers were eligible to file GSTR9 and only 2.71 lakh had filed till February 5 afternoon. Similarly, of the 64,187 eligible taxpayers for GSTR9C, 48,153 had filed. The HC after examining the case said it would give the Government more time to file a detailed reply/affidavit and time was given till February 12 to file it.

“We are prima facie satisfied that even if an assessees is ready and willing to comply with the statutory duty, so far as filing of returns are concerned, the website appears to be having technical bottlenecks, which appears to limit the opportunity of an assessee from uploading the forms,” the HC said.

According to the Court documents, out of 64,17,471 assessees who were required to file return in GSTR9, a total of 39,45,439 have filed the returns at 1:30 pm of February 5, 2020. Similarly, out of 12,42,238 assessees, who were required to submit their returns in GSTR9C returns/forms, a total of 7,76,999 have uploaded their returns till 1:30.

Documents also show that the highest number of returns were uploaded on 31st of January, 2020 - 2,19,417 in GSTR9 and 1,33,027 in GSTR9C. On 1st, 2nd and 3rd February, 2020, a total 10,914, 36,643 and 1,06,568 GSTR-9 returns were uploaded and for returns of GSTR9C forms, a total of 9,213, 24,096 and 67,773 returns respectively were uploaded.

The due dates for GSTR9 and 9C has been extended twice in a week. In its last announcement, CBIC has said the due dates for GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for FY 2017-18 are being extended in a staggered manner for different groups of states to 5th and 7th February 2020.

The new due dates for Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand was fixed for February 5, 2020.

The states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Other Territories have by February 7, 2020.

Similarly, the states of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Himachal Pradesh,Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will also file by February 7, 2020.

It is unclear what would happen to these due dates in view of the Rajasthan HC order.

Published On : 07-02-2020

Source : Economic Times