Setting up of an IT Grievance Rederessal Mechanism to address the grievances Of taxpayers due to technical glitches on GST Portal - GST - TRADE NOTICE NO. 01/2018-19

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER CENTRAL GST CX, PATNA-II 4 TH FLOOR, C.R. (ANNEXE) BUILDING, BIR CHAND PATEL MARG, PATNA-01. C/ No. IV(16)15/Trade Notice/Tech/GST/Patna-II/2018/ Dated: 28-05-2018 TRADE NOTICE NO. 01/2018-19 Subject: Setting up of an IT Grievance Rederessal Mechanism to address the grievances Of taxpayers due to technical glitches on GST Portal -reg. Attention Of the trade/ public is invited to Circular No. 39/13/2018-GST dated 3 rd April, 2018 issued under F.N0.267/7/2018-CX.8 by the Government Of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Central Board of Excise Customs (GST Policy Wing), New Delhi. 1. It has been 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 GET portal and the relief that needs to be given to them. The relief could be in the nature of allowing filling of any Form or Return prescribed in law or amending any Form or Return already filed. The details of the said grievance redressal mechanism are provided below: 2. Where an IT related glitch has been identified as the reason for failure of a class of taxpayer in filing of a return or a form within the time limit prescribed in the law and there are collateral evidences available to establish that the taxpayers has made bonafide attempt to comply with the process Of filing of form or return, GST Council has delegated powers to the IT Grievance Redressal Committee to approve and recommend to the GSI'N the steps to be taken to redress the grievance and the procedure to be followed for implementation of the decision. 3. Problems which are proposed to be addressed through this mechanism would essentially 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. 4, Any issue which needs to 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. In GIC convened to address IT issues or IT glitches, the CEO, GSTN and the DG(Systems), CBEC shall participate in these meetings as special invitees 5. 5.1 further, in exercise of powers following officers of CGST CX Pa tm-II Cotnmissionerate have been appointed as nodal officers empowered to address the problem a taxpayer faces due to glitches, if any, in the Common Portal as clarified in the trade notice. Sl. No. Name address of Commissionerate Name Designation od Nodal Office Address 1 Central GST Excise, Patna- II, 4th Floor, CR Building (Annexe), Virchand Patel Path. Patna - 800001 Shri Santosh Kumar, Assistant Commissioner, CGST Central Excise Division Muzaffarpur Lmli chatti, maripur Overbridge, Muzaffarpur - 842001 2 ----- do ----- Shri Swapan Kumar Ghosh, Assistant Commissioner, CGST Central Excise Division Vaishali Dak Bunglow Road. Hajipur -844101 3 ----- do ----- Shri j. N. Chakraborty, Assistant Commissioner, CGST Central Excise Division Begusarai Division Begusarai, Power House Road. Begusaral - 854101 4 ----- do ----- Shri Abdul Wahid, Assistant Commissioner. CGST Central Excise Division Darbhanga Division Darbhanga, Opposite- M, R. M, College, Lat Bagh. Darbhanga - 848004 5 ----- do ----- Shri Aloke Bandopnadyay, Assistant Commissioner, CGST Central Excise Division Purnea Division-Purnea, New Sipahi Tola, Maranga Road, Purnea - 854301 The Nodal officers shall receive applications from the taxpayers as per the procedure prescribed in the above Circular. Further, tire Divisional Assistant Commissioners as the nodal officer. shall be appropriate authority to make/ receive further communications with GSTN who, where necessary, bring the issue before Ore IT Grievance Redressal Commnittee in terms of the said circular. 5.2. Taxpayers shall make an application to the field officers or the nodal officers where there was a demonstrable glitch on the Common Portal in relation to an identified issue, due to which the due process as envisaged in law could not be completed on the Common Portal. 5.3 Such an application shall enclose evidences as may be needed for an identified issue to establish bonafide attempt on part of the taxpayer to comply with the due process of law, 5.4 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 application received, identify the issue involved where a large section of taxpayers are affected. GSTN shall forward the same to the IT Grievance Redressal Committee with suggested solutions for resolution of the problem. 6. 6.1 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, the consequential fine and penalty would also be required to be waived. GST Council has delegated the power to the IT Grievance Redressal Committee to recommend waiver of fine or penalty, in case of an emergency; to the Government in terms of section 128 of the CCST Ace 2017 under such mitigating circumstances as are identified by the committee. All such notifications waiving fine or penalty shall be placed before GST Council. 6.2 Where adequate time is available, the issue of waiver of lee and penalty shall placed before the CST Council with recommendation of the IT-Grievance Redressal Committee. 7.1 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-1 is due to IT related glitches. As a result, a large number of such TRAN-1s are stuck in the system. GSTN shall identify such taxpayers who could not file TRAN-1 on basis of electronic audit trail. It has been decided that all such taxpayers, who tried but were not able to complete TRAN-I 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-I filing, It is clarified that the last date for filing of TRAN I is not being extended in general and only these identified taxpayers shall be allowed to complete the process of filing TRAN-1. 72 The taxpayer shall not be allowed to amend the amount of credit in TRAN-1 during this process vis- -vis the amount of credit which was recorded by the taxpayer in the TRAN-1, which could not be filed. If needed, GSIN 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, 7.3 GSTN shall communicate directly with the taxpayers in this regard and submit a final report to GIC about the number of TRAN-Is filed and submitted through this process. 7.4 The taxpayers shall complete the process of filing of TRAN 1 stuck due to IT glitches, as discussed above, by 30th April, 2018 and the process of completing filing of GSTR 3B which could not be filed for such TRAN 1 shall be completed by 31st May 2018. Sd/ (NITIN ANAND) Commissioner CGST Central Excise, Patna - II