With respect to the recommendations of the 50th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council issued circular No. 192/04/2023-GST on 17th July 2023, the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) clarified the charging of interest under section 50(3) of the Central GST Act, 2017, in cases of wrong availment of IGST credit and reversal thereof.
The clarification was being sought as to whether such wrongly availed IGST credit would be considered to have been utilized for the purpose of charging of interest under sub-section (3) of section 50 of CGST Act, read with rule 88B of Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, in cases where though the available balance of IGST credit in the electronic credit ledger of the said registered person falls below the amount of such wrongly availed IGST credit, the total balance of input tax credit in the electronic credit ledger of the registered person under the heads of IGST, CGST and SGST taken together remains more than such wrongly availed IGST credit, at all times, till the time of reversal of the said wrongly availed IGST credit.
The CBIC clarified that since the amount of input tax credit available in electronic credit ledger, under any of the heads of IGST, CGST or SGST, can be utilized for payment of liability of IGST, it is the total input tax credit available in electronic credit ledger, under the heads of
IGST, CGST and SGST taken together, that has to be considered for calculation of interest under rule 88B of CGST Rules and for determining as to whether the balance in the electronic credit ledger has fallen below the amount of wrongly availed input tax credit of IGST, and to what extent the balance in electronic credit ledger has fallen below the said amount of wrongly availed credit.
Thus, in the cases where IGST credit has been wrongly availed and subsequently
reversed on a certain date, there will not be any interest liability under sub-section (3) of section 50 of CGST Act if, during the time period starting from such availment and up to such reversal, the balance of input tax credit (ITC) in the electronic credit ledger, under the heads of IGST, CGST and SGST taken together, has never fallen below the amount of such wrongly availed ITC, even if available balance of IGST credit in electronic credit ledger individually falls below the amount of such wrongly availed IGST credit.
However, when the balance of ITC, under the heads of IGST, CGST and SGST of electronic credit ledger taken together, falls below such wrongly availed amount of IGST credit, then it will amount to the utilization of such wrongly availed IGST credit and the extent of utilization will be the extent to which the total balance in electronic credit ledger under heads of IGST, CGST and SGST taken together falls below such amount of wrongly availed IGST credit, and will attract interest as per sub-section (3) of section 50 of CGST Act, read with section 20 of Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and sub-rule (3) of rule 88B of CGST.
It wa also clarified that As per proviso to section 11 of Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, input tax credit in respect of compensation cess on supply of goods and services leviable under section 8 of the said Act can be utilised only towards payment of compensation cess leviable on supply of goods and services. Thus, credit of compensation cess cannot be utilized for payment of any tax under CGST or SGST or IGST heads and/ or reversals of credit under the said heads.
Accordingly, credit of compensation cess available in electronic credit ledger cannot be taken into account while considering the balance of electronic credit ledger for the purpose of calculation of interest under subrule (3) of rule 88B of CGST Rules in respect of wrongly availed and utilized IGST, CGST or SGST credit.
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