Delhi HC allows Form GSTR-3B rectification- Dept. cannot take benefit of its own wrong

Bharti Airtel Limited Vs Union of India & Ors. (Delhi High Court)

Delhi High Court held that the failure of the Government to operationalise the statutory returns, GSTR 2, 2A and 3 prescribed under the CGST Act, cannot prejudice the assessee. The GSTR 3B which was merely a summary return as an alternative did not have the statutory features of the returns prescribed under the Act. Therefore, if there were errors in capturing ITC on account of which cash was paid for discharging GST liability instead of utilising ITC which could not be captured correctly at that time, the return should be allowed to be rectified in the very month in which the ITC was not recorded and the cash paid should be available as refund. The High Court read down the circular which did not permit such rectification as being contrary to the scheme of the CGST Act.

The Respondents have failed to fully enforce the scheme of the Act, and cannot take benefit of its own wrong of suspension of the Statutory Forms and deprive the rectification/amendment of the returns to reflect ITC pertaining to a tax period to which the return relates to. Petitioner has a substantive right to rectify/adjust the ITC for the period to which it relates. The rectification/ adjustment mechanism for the months subsequent to when the errors are noticed is contrary to the scheme of the Act. The Respondents cannot defeat this statutory right of the Petitioner by putting in a fetter by way of the impugned circular. Since the Respondents could not operationalize the statutory forms envisaged under the Act, resulting in depriving the Petitioner to accurately reconcile its input tax credit, the Respondents cannot today deprive the Petitioner of the benefits that would have accrued in favour of the Petitioner, if , such forms would have been enforced. The Petitioner, therefore, cannot be denied the benefit due to the fault of the Respondents.

Respondents have also not been able to expressly indicate the rationale for not allowing the rectification in the same month to which the Form GSTR-3B relates. The additional affidavit filed by the Respondents as per the directions of this Court, also skirts this question and has only attempted to give some explanation which is not convincing and lacks objectivity and rationality. Respondents have admitted that the facility of Form GSTR-2A was not available prior to 2018 and, as such, for the months of July, 2017 to September, 2017 the scheme as envisaged under the CGST Act was not Respondents have also clearly acknowledged that there could be errors in Form GSTR-2A which may need correction by the parties and have, in fact, permitted the rectification, clearly reinforcing the stand of the Petitioner. The refund of excess cash balance in terms of Section 49 (6) read with Section 54 of the CGST Act does not effectively redress Petitioner’s grievance. Therefore, the only remedy that can enable the Petitioner to enjoy the benefit of the seamless utilization of the input tax credit is by way of rectification of its annual return i.e. GSTR-3B. The hypothetical situations canvassed by Mr. Singh, would not deter us from granting the relief sought by the Petitioner. Each case would have to turn on its own facts. As and when a situation is brought to our notice, we would have to test the legality of the provision at that stage. Merely if there is any fanciful or absurd outcome in a given situation, as illustrated by Mr. Harpreet Singh, it does not mean that the Petitioner should not be given the benefit of rectification if the same is genuine. The correction mechanism is critical to sustaining successful implementation of GST.

Thus, in light of the above discussion, 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. Accordingly, we 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 Respondents 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. In view of the fact that the final relief sought by the Petitioner has been granted and the petition is allowed, no separate order is required to be passed in the application seeking interim relief. Accordingly, the said application is disposed of as such.

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