Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued a Circular No 39/13/2018 – GST and has decided to put in place an IT-Grievance Redressal Mechanism to address the difficulties faced by a section of taxpayers owing to technical glitches on the GST portal and the relief that needs to be given to them. The details of the said grievance redressal mechanism are provided below:
A. Problems which are proposed to be addressed through this mechanism would be those which relate to Common Portal (GST Portal) and affect a large section of taxpayers. 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.
B. Any issue which needs to be addressed through this mechanism shall be identified by GSTN and the method of resolution approved by the GST Implementation Committee (GIC) which shall act as the IT Grievance Redressal Committee.
C. GSTN, Central and State government would appoint nodal officers in requisite number to address the problem a taxpayer faces due to glitches. Taxpayers shall make an application to the field officers or the nodal officers. Such application shall enclose evidences as may be needed for an identified issue to establish bonafide attempt on the part of the taxpayer to comply with the due process of law.
D. GST Council has delegated the power to the IT Grievance Redressal Committee to recommend waiver of fine or penalty Where an IT related glitch has been identified as the reason for failure of a taxpayer in filing of a return or form prescribed in the law
E. Resolution of stuck TRAN-1s and filing of GSTR-3B
i) A large number of taxpayers could not complete the process of TRAN-1 filing either at the stage of original or revised filing as they could not digitally authenticate the TRAN-1s due to IT related glitches. As a result, a large number of such TRAN-1s are stuck in the system.
ii) GSTN shall identify such taxpayers who could not file TRAN-1 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 27.12.2017 due to IT-glitch, shall be provided the facility to complete TRAN-1 filing.
iii) It is clarified that the last date for filing of TRAN 1 is not being extended in general and only these identified taxpayers shall be allowed to complete the process of filing TRAN-1.
iv) The taxpayer shall not be allowed to amend the amount of credit in TRAN-1 during this process vis-à-vis the amount of credit which was recorded by the taxpayer in the TRAN-1, which could not be filed.
v) GSTN may request field formations of Centre and State to collect additional document/ data etc. or verify the same to identify taxpayers who should be allowed this procedure.
vi) The taxpayers shall complete the process of filing of TRAN 1 stuck due to IT glitches, as discussed above, by 30th April 2018and the process of completing filing of GSTR 3B which could not be filed for such TRAN 1 shall be completed by 31st May 2018
Source: Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
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