Liz Enterprises Vs State of Kerala (Kerala High Court)
The Kerala High Court considered a batch of writ petitions involving three categories of taxpayers facing issues with availing Input Tax Credit (ITC) under the GST regime. The first category consisted of cases where suppliers had remitted GST but had not reflected the tax payment in their GSTR filings due to technical reasons. The second category involved petitioners who had received goods or services and possessed valid tax invoices along with proof of payment of value and GST to suppliers, but the suppliers had not remitted the tax to the government. The third category comprised petitioners who possessed invoices but lacked clear proof of payment of consideration and GST for the inward supplies and may not have received the goods. Since similar questions of law and fact had previously been adjudicated by the court in its judgment dated 04.06.2024 in W.P.(C) No. 31559/2019 and connected matters, the court adopted the same reasoning for the present batch.
In the earlier judgment, the High Court acknowledged the difficulties faced by taxpayers during the initial rollout of the GST regime for the financial years 2017-18 and 2018-19, particularly the unavailability of GSTR-2A in the early period. To address bona fide errors and compliance challenges, the government had issued Circular No. 183/15/2022-GST dated 27.12.2022 and Circular No. 193/05/2023-GST dated 17.07.2023. These circulars applied to the entire period from the introduction of GST until the insertion of Section 16(2)(aa) on 01.01.2022 and permitted recipients to avail ITC based on bona fide scenarios outlined therein, subject to producing proof that the supplier had paid GST to the government. The court held that petitioners who could not avail these circular-based benefits within the prescribed timelines during the pendency of their writ petitions could approach the appropriate GST authority within thirty days to claim such benefits, and their claims would be examined individually.
