Taxpayers can complete filing transitional credit form by April 30

New Delhi: Taxpayers who could not submit transitional credit form Tran-1 on the GSTN portal due to technical glitches now has time till April 30 to complete the process, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

However, these taxpayers would not be permitted to amend the amount of transitional credit they had claimed while filing the form. Stating that a large number of taxpayers could not complete the process of filing Tran-1 as they could not digitally authenticate it due to IT related glitches, the ministry said, adding that GSTN shall identify such taxpayers on the basis of "electronic audit trail".

"It has been decided that all such taxpayers, who tried but were not able to complete Tran-1 procedure (original or revised) of filing them on or before December 27, 2017, due to IT-glitch shall be provided the facility to complete Tran-1 filing," it said in a circular.

If needed, GSTN may request field formations of the Centre and states to collect additional document and data etc or verify the same to identify taxpayers, who should be allowed this procedure, it added.

"The taxpayers shall complete the process of filing of Tran-1 stuck due to IT glitches by April 30 and the process of completing filing of GSTR 3B which could not be filed for such Tran-1 shall be completed by May 31, 2018," the ministry said.

Form Tran-1 declaration was required to be filed by persons registered under the GST law who wish to claim credit for taxes paid under pre-GST regime. The functionality to fill the claim form was open on the GSTN portal between August-December 2017.

The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, had on March 10 decided to set up an IT Grievance Redressal Mechanism to address the grievances of taxpayers in the wake of technical glitches on the GST portal.

However, where the problem relates to individual taxpayer, due to localised issues such as non-availability of internet connectivity or failure of power supply, this mechanism shall not be available, the circular said.

It further said that any issue which needs to be addressed through this mechanism shall be identified by the GST Network and the method of resolution would be approved by the GST Implementation Committee (GIC) which shall act as the IT Grievance Redressal Committee.

It further said that the GSTN, central and state governments would appoint nodal officers in requisite number to address the problem a taxpayer faces due to glitches on the tax payment portal.

Taxpayers who want to seek grievance redressal will have to make an application to the field officers or the nodal officers along with evidences to establish bonafide attempt on the part of the taxpayer to comply with the due process of law.

"These applications shall be collated by the nodal officer and forwarded to GSTN who would on receipt of application examine the same. GSTN shall after verifying its electronic records and the applications received, identify the issue involved where a large section of tax payers are affected. GSTN shall forward the same to the IT Grievance Redressal Committee with suggested solutions for resolution of the problem," the circular added.