Madras High Court allowed ITC for belated filing of GSTR 3B due to financial crunch.

 

In the case of KAVIN HP GAS GRAMIN VITRAK, the issue was with regard to the manual filing of GSTR-3B.  Petitioner grievance that GSTN restricted claim ITC on the ground of non-filing of GSTR-3B within prescribed time

The court has held that in the present case the petitioner was unable to pay output taxes and so the GSTN not permitted to file GSTR-3B in the web portal it is constructed that the petitioner had not filed GSTR-3B online.

If the GSTN provided an option for filing GSTN without payment of tax or incomplete GSTR-3B, the dealer would be eligible for claiming input tax credit. The same was not provided in the GSTN network hence, the dealers are restricted to claim ITC on the ground of non-filing of GSTR-3B within prescribed time.

If the option of filing incomplete filing of GSTR-3B are provided in the GSTN network the dealers would avail the claim and determine self-assessed ITC in online. The petitioner had expressed real practical difficulty – The GST Council may be the appropriate authority but the respondents ought to take steps to rectify the same. Until then the respondents ought to allow the dealers to file returns manually.

One may note that the above facts cannot be blanketly applied. The ruling is for F.Y 2017-18 & 2018-19 when GSTR 3B was not a notified return. Further the assessee had filed manual returns to claim their ITC and filed online returns after GST was paid. Interesting days ahead due to contradiction in judgement between two high courts. But certainly helpful