CAIT urges Jaitley to extend last date for filing ‘Annual GST Return’ to March 31, 2019
New Delhi, Dec 7 (KNN) The trader’s body,
Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged Arun Jaitley, Union
Finance Minister to extend the last date for filing ‘Annual Goods and
Service Tax (GST) Return’ from December 31, 2018 to March 31, 2019.
In its communication to Jaitley, the CAIT said that the format of
filing of annual GST return and even
option is not available anywhere
including on GST website as well.
“Under such circumstances it will not be possible for the traders to
file their annual GST return by the stipulated period and as an
immediate measure, the CAIT has urged to extend the last date of filing
Annual GST Return up to March 31 2019 for the period 2017-18," it said.
The annual GST return assumes mush significance as it gives last
opportunity to assesses to rectify their previous return filed with the
department for the concerned year, CAIT pointed.
Further, the association pointed that the concept of annual GST
return is still not known to large number of traders across the country.
Being the first year of GST implementation, most of the traders
registered with GST are not even aware of the obligation of filing
annual GST return, CAIT added.
Moreover, it is also not known to them that annual return is the last
opportunity for the assesses to rectify their Returns so as to avoid
any denial of Input Tax Credit (ITC) which in turn could also be
resulted into unwanted tax recovery.
While urging for extension of last date, the CAIT has suggested that a
wide spread national campaign should be launched by the Government to
make assesses aware about the liability of filing annual GST return and
its process.
Further, it has also urged that format and option of annual GST
return should be made available on GST portal immediately and even in
regional languages as well.