The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has not yet released any notification with regard to this issue.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has not yet released any notification regarding this issue. However, many chartered accountants expressed their frustration on social media, and we spoke with them about the inability to file the GSTR-1 return, which has a deadline of January 11, 2025, for the December 2024 tax period. For the December 2024 tax period, the deadline for QRMP filers is January 13, 2025.
The announcement from GSTN on X stated: “The GST portal has experienced a functional disruption and is currently undergoing maintenance.” We expect the restoration of the portal by 12:00 PM noon. We are sending an incident report to CBIC to consider extending the filing date. Thank you for your understanding and a lot of patience!”
GSTN said, “Scheduled Downtime! GSTN is making enhancements in the services on the site. Services will be unavailable from 10th Jan’25 12:00 AM to 10th Jan’25 03:00 PM.
What is the problem with the GSTR-1 return?
Chartered Accountant Himank Singla, a partner at SBHS & Associates, explains that he has been able to accomplish the following tasks for more than two days:
Cannot download DRC-01 SCNs
- The inability to generate the summary prevents the filing of GSTR-1.
- He has been unable to download old data.
- Cannot open the RFD-01 form.
- Cannot reply to SCNs
- Cannot open Core Field
According to Singla, there have been very serious technical problems at the GST portal in the last two days that have made businesses and tax professionals very upset as the deadline approaches for filing.
“This is not the first time the GST portal has had such problems. These recurring technical glitches have raised the demand for a more rigorous and reliable system to cope with the huge volumes of transactions and filings,” says Singla.
“Most tax professionals have also pointed to the urgency for contingency measures to protect compliance from these disruptions,” he adds. We anticipate that CBIC will soon release a formal announcement regarding any time extension and mitigation measures for the glitch’s impact. Meanwhile, taxpayers have expressed concerns about potential penalties and late fees resulting from the delay in filing, according to Singla.
Normally, the deadline for filing GSTR-1 is the 11th of each month, with the businesses usually filing their returns on the 10th and 11th to comply in a timely manner. Hunny Munjal, a chartered accountant, notes that the 11th of January, 2025, being a Saturday, is a typical holiday for many multinational corporations operating in India. “There has to be an anomaly in scheduling that requires the businesses to file their GSTR-1 by 10th January, 2025. The ongoing technical issues of the GSTN portal alarmingly hinder their compliance within this accelerated timeframe.”
How can buyers receive a delayed input tax credit if their suppliers fail to file the GSTR-1 within the required timeframe?
Such an impact will go beyond just missing a deadline, and Munjal says, “The consequence of such delays is that GSTR-1 is used to create GSTR-2B—the document that makes it possible for a buyer to claim Input Tax Credit (‘ITC’) as per Section 16 of the CGST Act, 2017.” Commonly, the GST portal auto-populates GSTR-2B on the 14th of each month, providing buyers with ample time to reconcile their purchases with ITC claims in their GSTR-3B returns by the end of the 20th, effectively giving them 6 days to do so.
Munjal suggests that businesses may fail to file GSTR-1 on time due to issues with the GSTN portal. In that scenario, the delay in generating GSTR-2B could potentially prevent certain buyers from claiming Input Tax Credit (ITC) during the relevant tax period. According to him, this will result in a significant blockage of working capital, as companies with large input purchases, such as many MNCs, will have to pay their liabilities in cash until the ITC becomes available in the coming months.
Munjal says, “One option that the government could look at would be to extend the deadline for filing GSTR-1 by 2-3 days, perhaps to January 13, 2025, to mitigate these problems.” While this would immediately relieve all sellers, it would also ironically delay the generation of GSTR-2B, thereby compressing the time available to buyers for reconciliation and further complicating the compliance process. “Large enterprises dealing with transactions running into crores lose time to avail ITC, and this could have severe financial consequences, suffocating cash flows and disrupting routine business operations,” he adds.
Who is required to file a GSTR-1 return?
The GST website states, “All normal and casual registered suppliers who supply goods and/or services, including the details of outward supplies of goods and services, are required to furnish GSTR-1 on a monthly or quarterly basis.”
Anyone who is registered as a taxable person must electronically file Form GSTR-1 on the GST portal. The only people who don’t have to do this are composition taxpayers, input service distributors, people who have to deduct tax under section 51, and people who have to collect tax under section 52.
Who is eligible for the quarterly GSTR-1 filing?
According to the GST portal, you can submit Form GSTR-1 on a quarterly basis under the following conditions:
- If your turnover in the previous financial year exceeded Rs 5 crore,
- If you’ve registered for the current financial year and anticipate total sales of up to Rs 5 crore,
Note: In case you choose Opt-in for Quarterly Return, you need to file both GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B quarterly only.”