The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Common Portal will be temporarily inaccessible for eight hours due to a scheduled disaster recovery drill, the Directorate General of Taxpayer Services (DGTS), Ahmedabad, has announced.

According to an official post shared by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on August 2, 2025, the GST system will be unavailable from 10:00 PM on August 2 until 6:00 AM on August 3. The department has urged taxpayers to plan their compliance activities accordingly during this window.

Services That Will Be Affected

During this scheduled maintenance, taxpayers will not be able to access the following services on the GST portal:

GST registration and amendment
Payment of taxes
HSN/SAC code search
Tracking of refund applications
Viewing electronic ledgers (cash, credit, and liability)

This temporary disruption comes at a critical time as businesses prepare to meet key filing deadlines.

GSTR-1 and Annual Return Filing Deadlines

Businesses with an annual turnover exceeding ₹5 crore are required to file GSTR-1 monthly. The return for July 2025 must be filed by August 11, 2025.

Meanwhile, the deadline for filing the GST Annual Return (Form GSTR-9) for Financial Year 2024–25 is December 31, 2025. However, concerns are growing among tax professionals and businesses due to delays in enabling the GSTR-9 form on the portal.

Chartered Accountant Deep Koradia raised the issue on X, highlighting that the form remains inactive even four months after the end of the financial year. He urged the GST Council to finalize exemption-related tables in the upcoming meeting, stating, “It’s a two-minute agenda item for the Council, but timely announcement would help taxpayers complete compliance on time.”

Koradia also appealed to Infosys, the technology partner managing the GST Network (GSTN), to make the yearly summary of Forms GSTR-3B and GSTR-1 available outside the GSTR-9 tab, enabling businesses to begin the reconciliation process without further delay.

Taxpayers Advised to Act Early

With portal disruptions and filing delays adding to the pressure, tax experts recommend that taxpayers and businesses proactively complete their filings well before deadlines and keep track of system maintenance notices from the GSTN.

As the government moves to strengthen backend systems through recovery drills and portal upgrades, smoother coordination between the GST Council, GSTN, and taxpayers remains essential for timely and accurate compliance.

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Mariya Paliwala

Mariya is the Senior Editor at Juris Hour. She has 5+ years of experience on covering tax litigation stories from the Supreme Court, High Courts and various tribunals including CESTAT, ITAT, NCLAT, NCLT, etc. Mariya graduated from MLSU Law College, Udaipur (Raj.) with B.A.LL.B. and also holds an LL.M. She started as a freelance tax reporter in the leading online legal news companies like LiveLaw & Taxscan.

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