Extension of due date for filing Annual ITR & Tax Audit Return for AY 2019-20

THE PUNJAB ACCOUNTANTS ASSOCIATION

REPRESENTATION

Date : 22-12-2020

Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman
Honorable Union Finance Minister,
Government of India,
New Delhi

Sub : Request for extension of due date for filing annual Income Tax Returns and Tax Audited Returns for AY 2019-20 under IT Act, 1961

Respected Madam,

We take this opportunity to bring into your kind notice that ours is an Apex Body of Accounts Professionals from all over Punjab. All locally registered Associations from Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Pathankot, Rajpura, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Moga, Ferozepur, Nawanshehr, Nakodar, Phagwara, Muktsar etc. have their representation in this Punjab level body, having its registered office at Jalandhar.

As is well known, we the Professional Accountants, being the basebone of nation’s economy, are, in these days, busy in preparing, matching, compiling and reconciling of data/ reports related to tax audits of accounts concerned with trade-houses, companies and manufacturing sectors. We acts as a bridge between taxpayers and the Government in order to increase revenues all the way.

We hereby refer our earlier Representation dated 19th September, 2019 for extension of all due dates for filing IT Returns in the interest of taxpayers and the professionals as well. We referred to the then prevailing situation and frequent lockdowns due to pandemic. We have no hitch to say that our humble request was favourably considered by the your goodself. The due dates for filing ITRs for AY 2020-21 were extended to 31-12-2020 and Tax Audit Reports on 31-01-2021. We do hereby appreciate that the Union government has ever been cooperative to the tax payers and the professionals at large.

No doubt, the country has now been unlocked as a whole, but the effects of COVID-19 is not yet over and is affecting all spheres of life even as of now. Several State governments have imposed various restrictions based on severity of Corona Pandemic. Punjab and the surrounding States have imposed Night Curfew and restricted all kinds of movements, resulting several industries and private offices have not come to their normal working. Moreover, during pandemic, many of our Accounts Professionals and their staff have been infected. Our President, the undersigned, is one of them. In such a condition, the affected and the suspected have not been able to work for a period of minimum 14 days. Most of the business establishments are still facing difficulty to operate at their full capacity. Shortage of manpower due to COVID-19 is badly paralysing the continuity of work. The people avoid travelling and prefer to work from home, due to which work of collecting various data for carrying tax audits and filing Returns of Income has not come to normalcy.

Apart from the above, the department has delayed to make available necessary Utilities of ITR Forms. Different ITR Forms release and their updation were made available on incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in portal as under :-

Usually, the Income Tax Returns utilities must be released in the month of April, but due to pandemic, this was delayed on an average of four months. Even after release, they have been constantly updated. Moreover, 700+ paged instructions for filing the Income Tax Returns were released only on 23-10-2020 and subsequently revised on 25-11-2020, i.e. just a month before the due date of filing of IT Returns. This all resulted not sufficient time to even take a note of most important points.

Under all these circumstances, we the Accounts Professionals are under acute mental pressure. It has become much difficult in compliance of filing tax audits and uploading of Annual GSTR-9/9C for statutory compliance, which is a long and a time consuming process. If preparing, compiling and reconciling correct tax data is required, we need sufficient time.

Therefore, it is our earnest request to please be kind enough and extend due date for uploading and filing Income Tax Returns and Tax Audited Reports under Section 139(1) of Income Tax Act by Assesses once again till 28-02-2021 and 31-03-2021 repectively. We the Professional Accountants shall be highly obliged.

For The Punjab Accountants Association

(Dharminder Sikka)
President

(Varinder K. Sharma)
General Secretary