GST professionals for extended deadline

SHILLONG: The National Action Committee of GST Professionals said it is “practically difficult” to adhere to the December 31 deadline for filing returns and it needs to be extended up to March 31, 2019, well in advance to ensure quality work and compliance.
In a statement issued here, the committee asserted that compliance under the GST law should be made simple and transparent which would ease compliances, cut or control cost of compliance and create a sense of ease of doing business. The committee said there are teething problems which the central and state governments were supposed to sort out.
Sixteen months have passed since the rollout of GST and it is necessary that the government and the public at large get an idea of the problems faced by key stakeholders like taxpayers and tax practitioners, the committee said.
Some of the major bottlenecks highlighted by the professionals are slow server of the GST Network (GSTN), refunds to be made in 20 days, filing of returns, deadlines for filing returns should not overlap, annual returns is to be filed within nine months after completion of any financial year.
The committee suggested that there should be clarity in filing of returns, utilities should be available well in advance, payment through credit and debit cards as well as real time gross settlement should be seamless and secrecy of data and privacy of businesses should be ensured.