The Delhi High Court in the writ petition filed by Bharti Airtel (W.P.(C) 6345/2018, CM APPL. 45505/2019) has allowed it to rectify the GSTR-3B returns for the period July to September, 2017.
The paramount grievance of the Petitioner (Bharti Airtel) in said case was that during the period from July, 2017 to September, 2017 , the Petitioner in its monthly GSTR- 3B recorded the ITC based on its estimate. As a result, when the Petitioner had to discharge the GST liability for the relevant period, the details of ITC available were not known and the Petitioner was compelled to discharge its tax liability in cash, although, actually ITC was available with it but was not reflected in the system on account of lack of data.
The exact ITC available for the relevant period was discovered only later in the month October 2018, when the Government operationalized Form GSTR-2A for the past periods. Thereupon, precise details were computed and Petitioner realized that for the relevant period ITC had been under reported. The Petitioner alleges that there has been excess payment of taxes, by way of cash, to the tune of approximately Rs. 923 crores.
The Delhi High Court had in above case decided as under:
- The rectification of the return for that very month to which it relates is imperative and, accordingly, we read down para 4 of the impugned Circular No. 26/26/2017-GST dated 29.12.2017 to the extent that it restricts the rectification of Form GSTR-3B in respect of the period in which the error has occurred.
- Allow the present petition and permit the Petitioner to rectify Form GSTR-3B for the period to which the error relates, i.e. the relevant period from July, 2017 to September, 2017. We also direct the Govt. that on filing of the rectified Form GSTR-3B, they shall, within a period of two weeks, verify the claim made therein and give effect to the same once verified.
Against the above order the Revenue had filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court has vide its order dated December 17, 2020 stayed the above Delhi High Court judgment permitting Bharti Airtel to rectify GSTR-3B returns and has listed the matter in the first week of March, 2021 for final disposal.
READ / DOWNLOAD ORDER:
[rainbow]Don’t miss free GST e-books, next GST Update / Article / Judicial pronouncement[/rainbow]
Subscribe our portal and get FREE GST e-books , articles and updates on your e-mail.
Resolve your GST queries from national level experts on GST free of cost.
Frah Saeed is a law graduate specializing in the core field of indirect taxes and is the Co-founder of taxwallah.com. She has authored many publications on GST and is into full-time consultancy on GST to big corporates. She as a part of taxwallah.com heads a team comprising of Chartered Accountants and Advocates and plays a key role in our mission to disseminate GST knowledge to all.
