Chartered accountants are a worried lot. With the Central Board for Direct Taxes refusing to extend the September 30 deadline for filing returns in case of compulsory audit, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is seeking relief from the finance ministry.

Manoj Fadnis, president, ICAI, will meet the finance minister to explain the problems caused by CBDT's stand on Tuesday even as efforts are on in various high courts to obtain relief. Sifting through various documents submitted by clients in his office near Bunts Hostel, chartered accountant Raviraj B shows the strain. Assesses required to get their accounts audited use CAs for it. Due to the delay in announcement of ITRs, CAs were busy filing returns of salaried class and small businessmen in August, he said. "Now, assesses are putting pressure on us to give tax audit reports within the reduced time of 23 days," he said. Raviraj told TOI that assesses get six months from the end of the previous financial year to file their return of income as per the Income Tax Act.

Assessees can file the return anytime between April 1 and September 3 of the assessment year. They can file returns only if the IT Return forms as well as schema for e-filing are made available on April 1. The e-filing site has to be enabled to accept such returns. He said assesses whose accounts are required to be compulsorily audited are large taxpayers. They have to get a tax audit report from CAs. CBDT should give such large taxpayers special privileges since they contribute higher taxes to the exchequer. Instead, CBDT issued a press release saying the forms have been notified sufficiently early, giving enough time for compliance. Hence, the due date will not be ex tended, he said.