As the deadline for filing monthly returns for the Goods and Services Tax – GSTR 1 approaches, industry is hoping for a further extension on the grounds of continuing software glitches.

The government had on December 28 extended by 10 days the last date for filing of final sales return GSTR-1. Businesses with an annual turnover of up to ₹1.5 crore are expected to file quarterly GSTR-1 for July to September by January 10. Similarly, businesses above this threshold have to file monthly returns for July to November by Wednesday.

However, government officials countered the claim and said that most assessees have been filing returns on the GST portal, without facing much difficulties.

The earlier deadline for filing GSTR-1 for July-October was December 31 and that for November was January 10. “Though the number of issues and inconsistencies in filing process of GST has come down now, there still exist a number of problems. There is a sense of confusion for the customers regarding the filing process,” said Sudhir Singh, Managing Director (Sales and Marketing), Marg ERP.

The Confederation of All India Traders has urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to extend the deadline for filing returns to January 30. “Most of the time the portal gets hanged and traders can not log in. Moreover, whenever it was in operation it shows errors and details of errors are not visible,” said CAIT, adding that it also requires HSN code wise details causing difficulties for traders dealing in multiple products.

According to a government official, “The number of complaints on Twitter has also gone down significantly. And GSTN is promptly responding to all issues. Any decision to extend the filing deadline will have to be taken by the GST Council.”

“Returns will eventually have to be filed. They have been postponed for long and assessees must get used to filing returns,” said another official.

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