GST returns date won’t be pushed to June: Bombay HC

MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Friday declined to extend the last date for filing annual goods and services tax (GST) annual returns for 2019-20 in Maharashtra till June 30. The last date is February 28.
A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Milind Jadhav dismissed a Goods and Services Tax Practitioners’ Association petition to extend the period of filing annual returns “until the complete lockdown is lifted or until the Covid-19 pandemic situation improves completely”.
Its petition said Maharashtra is still the worst affected state and has seen a surge in cases. In Mumbai, fresh Covid-19 guidelines have been issued and there is a fresh lockdown in some districts with sealing of buildings. A majority of traders and tax practitioners have not started their daily business due workforce shortage and no relief in local train travel.
The association’s advocate P C Joshi argued under Section 44 of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, considering the genuine hardship faced by its members and taxable persons, the discretionary power to extend the time limit must be exercised by the state commissioner.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh said there are 1.2 crore assessees registered under GST. He said considering the Covid-19 situation, the Centre had extended the last date from December 31, 2020, to February 28, 2021. Singh said Supreme Court in February 2020 had stayed that portion of Rajasthan high court’s order which had extended the deadline for submitting returns for 2017-18.
Assistant government pleader Jyoti Chavan said extension of time-limit cannot be granted only for Maharashtra “ because it is one nation, one tax”. She said Section 44 states the state commissioner can only extend if GST Council recommends.
The judges said they are not inclined to accede to the prayer made “that too, at this eleventh hour”. They also took “note of the fact it is the professional body of GST practitioners who are before us and not any individual taxable person expressing any difficulty in adhering to the extended timeline of February 28, 2021”.