The Government has extended the last date for filing Income-Tax and Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) returns for corporate sector, barring those in Gujarat, by a month till November 30.

The move follows representations from a section of taxpayers and professionals that they may not be able to complete their work by October 31.

In an official communiqu the Finance Ministry said, "The due date for obtaining the tax audit report and furnishing the return of income and fringe benefits in the case of corporate taxpayers (other than those assessed in Gujarat) has been extended to November 30 from October 31."

The statement emphasised that "no further extension will be granted beyond November 30."

Citing reasons for seeking extension, the taxpayers had said there were many holidays in October and therefore they would not be able to complete their work. Some of the stakeholders also said that they faced certain difficulties in adapting to the new format and the new procedure for filing e-returns. The due date for tax audit report and furnishing returns of income and fringe benefits in respect of taxpayers in Gujarat has already been extended from October 31 to December 31.

As on October 24, approximately 19,000 companies have already filed the returns. These included companies such as Hero Honda Motors Ltd, Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd, Morgan Stanley Investment Management Pvt. Ltd and Haldiram Marketing Pvt. Ltd. A large number of small companies have also filed their returns electronically.

The Government took an important initiative this year for furnishing returns of income and fringe benefits electronically. For this purpose, new forms of returns were designed to make them amenable to electronic filing. These forms are not to be accompanied by any attachment/annexure. Since the corporate sector is best organised in terms of availability of information systems infrastructure, it was decided to make it compulsory for corporate taxpayers to furnish their returns electronically.

The response to this measure from corporate taxpayers and professionals in the field has been, by and large, positive, enthusiastic and encouraging, the Ministry said.