As per the previous service tax rules every tax payers had to file their half yearly return for the period 1st April to 30th September on or before 25th October and the second half yearly return from 1st October to 31st March by 25th April. But now as per the amendment in Rule 7 every assessee needs to file their service tax return for the period 01.04.2012 to 30.06.2012 instead of 01.04.2012 to 30.09.2012 and the due date of the returns remains the same as per the Notification No. 47/2012 ST, Dated 28/09/2012
RULE 7 OF THE SERVICE TAX RULES, 1994 - RETURNS - EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE RETURN IN FORM ST3
ORDER NO. 3/2012 [F.NO.137/99/2011-ST], DATED 15-10-2012
In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (4) of rule 7 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994, the Central Board of Excise & Customs hereby extends the date of submission of the return for the period 1st April 2012 to 30th June 2012, from 25th October, 2012 to 25th November, 2012.
The circumstances of a special nature which have given rise to this extension of time are as follows:
(a) ACES will start releasing the return in Form ST3 in a quarterly format, shortly before the due date of 25th October, 2012.
(b) This will result in all the assessees attempting to file their returns in a short time period, which may result in problems in the computer network and delay and inconvenience to the assessees.