Income Tax, GST Offices To Remain Open On March 30, 31 To Facilitate Year-End Collection
Offices will remain open on Saturday and Sunday as the government races against time to meet revenue collection targets.
Tax offices, for both income tax and Goods and Services Tax, will remain open on Saturday and Sunday as the departments race against time to meet the revenue collection targets.
"As per past practice, all field offices of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs will remain open during the last weekend of the current financial year also March 30 and March 31, 2019, for assisting the taxpayers in all matters," CBIC said in an office memorandum.
In an office order, Central Board of Direct Taxes asked its field offices to facilitate the filing of tax returns by the taxpayers by opening additional receipt counters, wherever required, on March 30 and 31.
The government has pegged GST collection target at Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the current fiscal, while the same for direct tax mop-up is Rs 12 lakh crore.
GST collections in the current fiscal till February totalled Rs 10.7 lakh crore.
With regard to direct taxes, the CBDT had collected only Rs 10.21 lakh crore as on March 23, which is 85.1 percent of the revised estimate of Rs 12 lakh crore. The apex policy-making body for income and corporate taxes has asked its field offices to take all possible actions to achieve the collection targets.
The Reserve Bank of India has also asked banks to keep their branches open on March 31, so that all government transactions for the financial year 2018-19 are accounted for within the same financial year. All electronic transactions, including real time gross settlements and national electronic funds transfer, will continue for the extended time on March 30 and March 31.