The Kerala High Court has once again held that the time limit for furnishing Return for September is to be treated as 30th November from 01.07.2017.
The batch of writ petitions contains three sets of cases. In some cases, the respective supplier had remitted the tax (GST) but not reflected in their return GSTR due to some technical reasons. Another set of petitioners are those who have received the goods or services and have valid tax invoices, proof of payment of the value of goods along with the GST component to the respective suppliers, but the respective suppliers had not remitted the GST on the supply made by them to the petitioners.
The third set of petitioners are those who are in possession of the invoice but have no clear proof of payment of consideration and tax towards the inward supply and might not have received goods in their possession.
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Common questions of facts and law are involved in these Writ Petitions. The matters were disposed on 4.6.2024 by this Court and the controversy has been decided by judgment of even date. The Government had realized the difficulty in the initial roll out of the GST regime under the CGST/SGST Act and considered that GSTR 2A was not available initially in the Finance years 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 during the implementation of GST.
In order to resolve all bona fide claims and mistakes, Circular No.183/15/2022- GST dated 27.12.2022 and Circular No. 193/05/2023- GST dated 17.07.2023 have been issued. Circulars cover the period from the introduction of GST till Section 16(2) (aa) was introduced with effect from 01.01.2022.
The ITC can be availed by the recipient for the bona fide scenarios listed in those Circulars on submitting proof of payment to the Government by the supplier. Therefore, if, during the pendency of these writ petitions, the petitioners who could have got the benefits of these Circulars and could not avail the benefits within the time limit prescribed, may approach the appropriate GST authority within a period of thirty days from today to avail the benefit of the aforesaid Circulars, if the same is/are applicable to their case.
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The GST authorities will examine the claim of the individual dealer by applying the provisions of the Circulars, and it will grant applicable relief to eligible dealers.
Prior to the amendment in Section 39 by the Finance Act 2022, the date for furnishing the return under Section 39 was 30th September. Considering the difficulties in the initial stage of the implementation of the GST regime, its understanding, and compliance, the Legislature effected the amendment and extended the time for filing the return for September to 30th November in each succeeding Financial Year.
The amendment is only procedural to ease the difficulties initially faced by the dealers / taxpayers. Therefore, for the period from 01.07.2017 till 30.11.2022, if a dealer has filed the return after 30th September and the claim for ITC was made before 30th November, the claim for ITC of such dealer should also be processed if he is otherwise entitled to claim the ITC.
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A single bench Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh held that the time limit for furnishing the return for the month of September is to be treated as 30th November in each financial year with effect from 01.07.2017, in respect of the petitioners who had filed their returns for the month of September on or before 30th November, and their claim for ITC should be processed, if they are otherwise eligible for ITC.
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