The delhi high court has allowed Bharti airtel to rectify GST returns filed between July and september 2017 after the telecom operator said it paid excess tax on inputs in absence of a purchase-related tax return form. airtel in a statement said it has paid an excess tax of Rs.923 Crores and the tax paid can be adjusted against the future tax liabilities.
The division bench of the delhi high court comprising Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice sanjeev Narula said, "Indisputably, if the statutorily prescribed returns, GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 had been operationalized by the government, the petitioner would have known the correct ITC amount available to it in the relevant period, and could have discharged its liability through ITC."
Bharti had argued that during the transition, the GST Network Portal was not geared to handling the load and lead to many inadvertent errors. delhi HC has decided to read down the december 2017 circular to the extent that it disallows rectifications of the GSTR-3B forms. After lengthy arguments, the delhi HC has decided to read down the december 2017 circular to the extent that it disallows rectifications of the GSTR-3B forms. Now delhi HC has allowed airtel to make corrections to the GSTR-3B forms for the period between July and september 2017. The HC also directed the government to verify the forms and process the refund within two weeks.
