Chennai: With Tamil Nadu reeling under severe power cuts daily
and banks being closed for half-year accounts Saturday, tax-payers are
hoping that the central government would extend by a month the deadline
for tax remittance and filing returns, said chartered accountants.
"The
finance ministry would do a great service to honest tax-payers if it
extends the deadline for tax remittance by one more month for corporates
and others. Tax returns have to be filed online and taxes have to be
paid before that. With more than 10-hour power cuts in cities like
Coimbatore, Madurai and other cities, it is difficult to meet the Sep 30
deadline for filing returns," P.S.Prabhakar, a chartered accountant,
told media.
"If the deadline is extended, it will be of immense
help to thousands of tax-payers across the country," G. Ramaswamy,
former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
(ICAI), told media.
He confirmed that ICAI has made a representation to the finance ministry to extend the deadline.
Prabhakar
cited the extension of deadline for filing the returns from July to
August this year on the grounds of severe power cuts in north India as a
precedent.
S. Senthamarai Kannan, Income Tax chief commissioner,
Chennai, said: "We have not got any intimation as to postponing the
deadline. We have not received any representation till now on the
subject from any association, chambers of commerce and others."