Govt extends service tax return deadline by a month

The Revenue Department has extended the deadline by one month to November 25 for filing of service tax returns for the April-June quarter, as it has not been able to provide electronic return form in time.

The earlier last date to file the return was October 25. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said the extension of date is due to "circumstances of a special

nature" as the ACES (Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax) will start releasing the return in 'Form ST3' in a quarterly format, shortly before the due date of October 25.

"This will result in all the assessees attempting to file their returns in a short time period, which may result in problems in the computer network and delay and inconvenience," it said.

As per the Service Tax Rules, the half yearly return is to be filed by October 25, 2012.

However, with the government's decision to tax all services expect those in the 'negative list' from July 1, the CBEC amended the rules and decided that the Form ST-3 required to be submitted by October 25, 2012, "shall cover the period between April 1 to June 30, 2012 only".

Assessees will have to provide data for the second quarter in a revised format. "The revised format of the return and the last date for filing it will be indicated separately," CBEC said.

The government aims to collect Rs 1.24 lakh crore from service tax this fiscal as against Rs 95,000 crore in 2011-12. The service tax collection was Rs 60,000 crore during April-September period. Service tax has also been imposed on railways from October 1.