With the deadline (August 31) nearing for businesses to file GST annual returns for the previous year, industries need more time, say micro, small and medium-sector enterprises here.
“We are sending a memorandum to the Government appealing to it for time to file the annual returns. Not even 30% to 40 % of the MSMEs here have the filed the returns. It is a cumbersome process and the industries need time and support of Chartered Accountants. But, the CAs are already having so many files to handle that they cannot help all the SMEs here,” said president of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) president R. Ramamurthy.
K. Jalapathi, secretary of the Southern Region council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) told The Hindu the Government fixed August 31 as the deadline after postponement of the deadline several times.
However, the required forms were made available to the industry only recently. Nation-wide it is said that just 10 % of the assessees have filed the annual returns.
This is because the returns requires details (GST rates, HSN code, etc) for all the goods purchased and sold. Not all companies will have these details or they have to compile all the information.
It takes two to three days to file each return.
According to Rani (name changed), a micro unit owner here, the system does not accept even minor discrepancy in the numbers. Some of the customers or suppliers do share the GST details.
But, they might not have filed the monthly returns. Not all industries will have every transaction bill details. Further, for the monthly returns only the summary of the transaction is needed. For the annual returns, every small detail should be filed. Initially there was no clarity on the system.
Chartered Accountant G. Karthikeyan, who is also former chairman of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Coimbatore, says that there are 18 categories under which there should be no discrepancy in the annual filings.
If there is, it should be set right. Monthly filing and annual filing of the returns are not the same. This increases the compliance cost for even small-scale industries.
The GST Commissionerate here has opened help desks at its offices from August 21 to 31 to help the assessees with filing of the annual returns (GSTR - 9).
It will also conduct a workshop on August 22 on its premises at 2 p.m.
