Orissa HC Orders CBDT to Release a Circular Over ITR Filing Glitches

The Orissa High Court held the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for issuing the circular as the taxpayer is not able to file an ITR because of technical issues.

Mr J. Sahoo, Senior Counsel for All Odisha Tax Advocates Association, the applicant places before the Court copy of the judgment on 13th January 2021 of the Gujarat High Court in the All-Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultants v. Union of India whereby an identical problem for non-filing of returns and tax audit reports within time was being concerned.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has been repeatedly extending the deadline for submitting the returns of the Tax Audit Reports, and the Gujarat High Court noted this. The Gujarat High Court declined to grant the request for a directive to the CBDT to further extend the due dates by using its authority under Section 119 of the Income Tax Act 1961 (the “Act”) on the grounds that interference at that point in “matters relating to the revenue” would have “far-reaching consequences.”

It was clear that the CBDT has extended the deadline for filing returns and audit reports for the Assessment Year 2021–2022 in a circular dated January 11, 2022. The Department should not impose interest under Sections 234A and 234-B of the Act, late fees under Section 234F, or penalties under Section 271B for filing late returns, which is the sole remaining concern.

Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice G. Satapathy held that CBDT should take into consideration issuing an appropriate circular clarifying that by granting an extension of the deadline for filing returns/tax audit reports because the Department has itself admitted that there have been technical problems that have contained many taxpayers from filing their returns and tax audit reports within the time.