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TMI Blog2022 (1) TMI 947X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t have to face any hardships or difficulties on account of the technical glitches in the portal. We take notice of one pertinent feature emerging from the affidavit and i.e. the E-mail ID, which has been created to assist the filing of Tax Audit Report. A team of six members or if need be more are to examine and resolve the E-mails received at this E-mail ID. Our suggestion to Mr. Singh as well as to Mr. Krishnamurthy is that one such E-mail ID may also be created for the Income Tax Returns. Our suggestion has been graciously accepted by Mr. Singh and Mr. Krishnamurthy. They have assured that the needful shall be done in this regard also. We are convinced that with the cooperation of one and all, we have been able to resolve the controversy as regards the technical glitches in the Income Tax Portal. At this stage, Mr. Hemani, the learned Senior Counsel submitted that by and large all issues can be said to have been taken care of with view of what has been stated in the affidavit except the issue as regards the levy of interest under Section 234A of the Income Tax Act. We do not intend to look into the above controversy in the present litigation as we are informed that one ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... final disposal of this Petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to direct respondents to allow filing of TAR/ITR in physical form to jurisdictional authorities; (f) Your Lordships may be pleased to grant any other relief or reliefs' as this Hon'ble Court may deem just, fit and expedient be granted in favour of the Petitioner. 3. We need not delve much into the facts giving rise to this litigation as our order passed in this very matter dated 12.01.2022 would make the picture abundantly clear. The order dated 12.01.2022 reads thus: 1 Since the issues raised in both the captioned writ applications are the same, those were taken up for hearing analogously. 2 For the sake of convenience, we treat the Special Civil Application No.591 of 2022 as the lead matter. 3 This writ application has been filed by the Southern Gujarat Income Tax Bar Association, Surat, through its Secretary, seeking the following reliefs: (a) Your Lordships may be pleased to pass a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing the respondent No.1 and /or 2 to extend the due date of filing of Tax Audit Report and the Income Tax Return ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by the assessee in uploading the audit report for the purpose of filing the its income tax return. Our attention has also been drawn to the Circular No.17/2021 issued by the Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue, CBDT dated 09.09.2021 with respect to extension of the time limit for filing income tax returns and various reports of audit for the A.Y. 2021-22. Prima facie, it appears that the writ applicants are aggrieved by the clarification 1 in the Circular. Clarification 1 reads thus: Clarification 1: It is clarified that the extension of the dates as referred to in clauses (9), (12) and (13) of Circular No.9/2021 dated 20.05.2021 and as referred to in clauses (1), (4) and (5) of this Circular shall not apply to Explanation 1 to section 234A of the Act in cases where the amount of tax on the total income as reduced by the amount as specified in clauses (I) to (vi) of sub-section (1) of that section exceeds one lakh rupees. 3. The learned counsel appearing for the writ applicants pointed out that for the purpose of uploading the audit report, the assessee has to generate the Unique Document Identification Number (for short the UDIN ). This has been made mandato ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 11.01.2022 extending the timeline for filing the income tax return and various reports of audit for the A.Y. 2021-22. The due date of furnishing of Report of Audit under any provision of the Act for the Previous Year 2020-21, which was 30th September, 2021, in the case of assessees referred in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to subsection (1) of Section 139 of the Act, as extended to 31st October, 2021 and 15th January, 2022 by Circular No.9/2021 dated 20.05.2021 and Circular No.17/2021 dated 09.09.2021 respectively, is hereby further extended to 15th February, 20222. The due date of furnishing of Report of audit under any provision of the Act for the Previous Year 2020-21 which was 31st October, 2021, in the case of assessees referred in clause (aa) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of Section 139 of the Act, is hereby extended to 15th February, 2022. 7. Post this matter on 08.02.2022 to enable the respondents to file their counter. One copy of the counter shall be furnished to the learned counsel appearing for the writ applicants well in advance. The further progress in the matter with regard to the technical glitches shall be reported to us on the next date of hearing. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o.17/2021 dated 09.09.2021 respectively, is hereby further extended to 15th February, 2022; 4. The due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which was 31 st October 2021 under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 30 th November 2021 and 15 th February 2022 by Circular No.9/2021 dated 20.05.2021 and Circular No.17/2021 dated 09.09.2021 respectively, is hereby further extended to 15th March, 2022: 5. The due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which was 30 th November 2021 under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 31 st December 2021 and 28 th February 2022 by Circular No.9/2021 dated 20.05.2021 and Circular No.17/2021 dated 09.09.2021 respectively, is hereby further extended to 15th March, 2022. Clarification 1: It is clarified that this extension shall not apply to Explanation 1 to section 234A of the Act, in cases where the amount of tax on the total income as reduced by the amount as specified in clauses (i) to (vi) of sub-section (1) of that section exceeds one lakh rupees. Clarification 2: For the purpose of Clarification 1, in case of an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uthority concerned and revert to us by the returnable date. One copy of this order shall be furnished to Mr. Vyas today itself for its onward communication. We permit service of notice to the respondents by Speed Post R.P.A.D. as well as by E-mail. 4. We have heard Mr. Tushar Hemani, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Dr. Avinash Poddar and Mr. Nipun Singhvi, the learned counsel appearing for the writ applicant, Mr. M.R. Bhatt, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. Karan Sangani, the learned counsel, appearing for the respondent No.2 Central Board of Direct Taxes and Mr. Devang Vyas, the learned Additional Solicitor General of India appearing for the Union of India. 5. Manifold contentions were raised by Mr. Hemani, the learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the writ applicant as regards manifold reliefs prayed for in the present litigation. One of the reliefs prayed for was to extend the time period for filing the Tax Audit Reports and the Income Tax Returns. The second relief which has been prayed for is to permit the assesses to file their TAR/ITR in physical form till the new Income Tax portal is able to take care of all the technical glitches. The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that filing of ITR and TAR has to be done in the electronic format on e-filing portal. Over 6.01 crore ITRs for AY 21-22 and nearly 13.7 lakh various types of TARs have already been filed electronically. The filing of ITR and associated TAR is only the first step in the entire procedure for processing and assessment. Without the availability of data in the prescribed digital format, the ITR cannot be processed and refunds, if any, and intimations cannot be issued. (ii) There is no existing mechanism to digitize paper ITRs and such data cannot be used for processing or issue of refunds. (iii) Further, the e-filed TARs are used to crosscheck data with ITRs during processing to identify mismatches and for risk assessment. (iv) All this is done in an automated manner without any significant human intervention. Therefore, even ITRs filed through e-mail would not be compatible with this automated process. Any change in this already stable procedure would be extremely disruptive to the Department as well as cause severe inconvenience to the taxpayer eventually. 3. It is humbly submitted that Tax Audit Reports in various forms have been successfully filed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 55 80 4,369 98 74,701 09-Jan-22 4246 50,814 681 29 47 2,504 59 58,380 10-Jan-22 10137 84,842 1,784 64 214 5,958 155 1,03,154 11-Jan-22 10191 80,020 1,667 84 217 6,355 141 98,675 12-18-Jan-22 (after extension) 18616 1,62,535 5,347 165 848 11,444 267 1,99,222 Total 127931 11,32,825 26,996 1,051 2,155 74,7 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 3,02,518 6,01,871 35,084 11,993 3,461 18,89,057 19-Dec-21 8,54,136 2,59,633 3,76,717 7,74,354 42,921 12,250 4,242 23,24,253 20-Dec-21 11,61,082 3,51,445 5,50,070 11,41,651 65,652 15,753 6,045 32,91,698 21-Dec-21 13,81,273 4,91,489 8,50,494 17,71,443 1,04,187 2,764 10,158 46,11,808 Till 31.12.2021 2,91,87,339 54,78,736 70,21,235 1,59,99,570 7,66,257 2,58,191 66,878 5,88,62,067 1-18Jan 22 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tioning of the lease lines also play significant role in the entire process of uploading Tax Audit Report and Income Tax Return. In case of any difficulty, the helplines are there to provide assistance to the taxpayers. Moreover, in case of any assistance in the form of technical infrastructure sought by the tax payer, the Aayakar Seva Kendras (ASK Centers) are at the service of the taxpayers. 6. The Hon'ble Court is assured that a team of Departmental officers will also supervise a special team of helpdesk, technical, functional personnel from the Managed Service Provider (MSP) for the project, to ensure that any grievance reported or technical issue identified is addressed at the earliest and to ensure that the taxpayer is facilitated in the filing process. 7. Further, this Hon'ble Court is assured that the following additional mechanism including a dedicated email for this purpose (given below) will be made available for issues related to filing of Tax Audit Reports to facilitate its timely filing. Source Details Action Email id TAR.helpdesk@income ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssist the filing of Tax Audit Report. A team of six members or if need be more are to examine and resolve the E-mails received at this E-mail ID. Our suggestion to Mr. Singh as well as to Mr. Krishnamurthy is that one such E-mail ID may also be created for the Income Tax Returns. Our suggestion has been graciously accepted by Mr. Singh and Mr. Krishnamurthy. They have assured that the needful shall be done in this regard also. 11. In the overall view of the matter, we are convinced that with the cooperation of one and all, we have been able to resolve the controversy as regards the technical glitches in the Income Tax Portal. 12. At this stage, Mr. Hemani, the learned Senior Counsel submitted that by and large all issues can be said to have been taken care of with view of what has been stated in the affidavit except the issue as regards the levy of interest under Section 234A of the Income Tax Act. 13. We do not intend to look into the above controversy in the present litigation as we are informed that one writ application as regards Section 234A is already pending before this High Court. This issue shall be looked into as and when the pending writ application is tak ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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