A little-known chartered accountants body has raised doubts about the quality of a system for e-filing of income tax returns, which is to be inaugurated by Finance Minister P Chidambaram tomorrow.

In a memorandum to Revenue Secretary K M Chandrasekhar in this regard today, the All India Chartered Accountants’ Society complained of technical snags in electronic uploading of returns and sought extension of the October 31 deadline for filing electronic returns by corporates.

When contacted, Finance Ministry officials ruled out extending the date for filing returns in ‘Form 1′, the combined form for Income Tax and Fringe Benefits Tax.

The chartered accountants body said: “Even data structure is not correct: when we fill profit and loss account, even if there is profit, the balance is taken to Asset side in the balance sheet, hence balance sheet would never tally.”

It further said ‘Form No 1′ in the present format is highly complicated and cumbersome and at this stage, it is nearly impossible to comply with the requirements of these returns.

Officials of statutory body of CAs, ICAI, which was consulted before putting the e-filing system in the Income Tax department according to Finance Ministry officials, could not be reached for comments.

According to a recent notification by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, all corporate taxpayers are mandatorily required to furnish the return for assessment year 2006-07 electronically after July 24.

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