S. Saravanan Vs Assistant Commissioner (ST) (Madras High Court)
Summary: The Madras High Court considered a writ petition challenging an order dated 23.08.2023 passed under Section 73 read with Section 16(4) of the GST law in relation to Financial Year 2018-2019. The petitioner had filed the return for March 2019 on 30.10.2019, ten days after the prescribed due date of 20.10.2019. Although the return was filed belatedly and the applicable late fee under Section 47 had been paid, the respondent denied the Input Tax Credit (ITC) claimed in the return and consequently levied interest and penalty.
The petitioner relied upon the retrospective insertion of sub-sections (5) and (6) in Section 16 of the CGST Act by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024 (Act 15 of 2024). Section 16(5), inserted retrospectively with effect from 01.07.2017, provides a relaxation from the time limit under Section 16(4) for invoices or debit notes pertaining to Financial Years 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21, where the relevant return under Section 39 is filed up to 30.11.2021. The petitioner contended that the case was covered by this extended statutory period. The learned Additional Government Pleader appearing for the Revenue did not dispute the legal position.
The Court noted that the petitioner admittedly filed the relevant return on 30.10.2019, well before the extended statutory cut-off of 30.11.2021. It observed that Parliament had inserted Section 16(5), considering, among other things, that the GST enactment had come into force only in 2017 and dealers were not accustomed to the procedures. The Court reproduced Section 16(5), which operates notwithstanding Section 16(4) and covers ITC pertaining to Financial Years 2017-18 through 2020-21 where the return under Section 39 was filed up to 30.11.2021.
