Traders have breathed a sigh of relief with the Excise and Taxation Department extending the last date for filing VAT-15 returns for the third quarter of 2016-17 till February 20.
This is the second time that the date has been extended. Earlier, the last date for filing the returns was extended from January 30 to February 10.
Earlier it was demonetisation and now the Assembly elections which kept the traders busy. “A lot of time was wasted after demonetisation as everyone was busy exchanging and depositing old currency notes and filing of returns took a back seat. Although the date was extended earlier, change in the e-form for uploading the VAT return took more time,” said Mohinder Singh, a trader.
Elections are a big thing in Punjab and everyone, right from candidates to supporters, was busy. “Now that the elections are over, I can freely look after my work of filing returns,” said another inter-state trader, Vishal Garg.
“We have been regularly requesting the department to extend the last date for the filing of returns as the e-form has been changed and many advocates still had to upload their software accordingly. The demand has been accepted by the department and now returns can be filed smoothly,” said Jatinder Khurana, a taxation lawyer.
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