Med Serve Vs State of Kerala (Kerala High Court)
he petitioner, a registered taxpayer under the CGST/KSGST Act, challenged an order passed under Section 73 of the CGST Act denying input tax credit (ITC) on two grounds. First, certain ITC claims were held to be unsupported by proper documents and therefore inadmissible under Section 16(2)(c) of the CGST Act. Second, the monthly returns for December 2018, January 2019, February 2019, and March 2019 were found to have been filed beyond the time limit prescribed under Section 16(4) of the Act.
Before the Kerala High Court, the petitioner expressly stated that it was not pressing the challenge relating to denial of ITC under Section 16(2)(c). The challenge was confined to the denial of ITC on the ground that the returns had been filed beyond the period prescribed under Section 16(4).
The petitioner relied on Section 16(5) of the CGST Act, contending that taxpayers who furnished returns within the cut-off date of 30.11.2021 were entitled to claim ITC. The Court noted from the impugned order that the relevant monthly returns had been filed on 30.10.2019, 01.11.2019, 02.11.2019, and 22.11.2019, respectively. It found that all these returns had been submitted within the statutory period contemplated under Section 16(5).
