Gujarat High Court directs CBDT to attend to the technical glitches of Income Tax Portal

Gujarat High Court directs CBDT to attend to the technical glitches of Income Tax Portal A writ-Petition was filed by CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS ASSOCIATION, SURAT on account of difficulties being faced by the assessee while uploading the audit report for the purpose of filing its income tax return. The grievance was voiced by Mr. Avinash Poddar, the learned counsel appearing for the writ applicants is that on account of technical glitches in the Portal, the Chartered Accountants are finding it very difficult to upload the audit report. In other words, even after generating the UDIN on account of some technical problems in the Portal, the audit reports are not being uploaded. Once the audit report is not uploaded and the return is not filed in time, then some would entail interest under Sections 234A and 234B respectively, late fees under Section 234F and penalty under Section 271B of the Act respectively. He further requested that the deadline of 15.01.2022 for the purpose of filing the audit report may be extended to 15.02.2022. On this matter the court refused to comment. Court further added "The issues of penalty, interest etc. would arise when the final order of assessment is passed. Even for the purpose of penalty under Section 271B, it is necessary to issue a notice to the assessee. If the assessee has not been in a position to file his return in time on account of his inability to upload the audit report on account of technical glitches in the Portal, he can always point out all such circumstances beyond his control when he is called upon to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed."

What Court said on Income Tax Portal issues?

However, with all the aforesaid, we once again impress upon the respondent to attend to the technical glitches, which are being experienced in the Portal at the earliest. The Portal is something which is within the control of the respondent and if there are any technical problems in the same, it is only the respondents, who can take care of such problems. Click on below link to download the Order: