Supreme Court directs GSTN to Open GST portal for claiming Transitional Credit for two months
In a major relief to the taxpayers under the GST regime, the Supreme Court has directed GSTN to open the GST system enabling all registered taxpayers to claim transitional credit for two months.
The Supreme Court division bench of Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice JK Maheshwari passed the order giving the following directions to the Government;
1. Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN) is directed to open common portal for filing concerned forms for availing Transitional Credit through TRAN-1 and TRAN-2 for two months i.e. w.e.f. 01.09.2022 to 31.10.2022.
2. Considering the judgments of the High Courts on the then prevailing peculiar circumstances, any aggrieved registered assessee is directed to file the relevant form or revise the already filed form irrespective of whether the taxpayer has filed writ petition before the High Court or whether the case of the taxpayer has been decided by Information Technology Grievance Redressal Committee (ITGRC).
3. GSTN has to ensure that there are no technical glitch during the said time.
4. The concerned officers are given 90 days thereafter to verify the veracity of the claim/transitional credit and pass appropriate orders thereon on merits after granting appropriate reasonable opportunity to the parties concerned.
5. Thereafter, the allowed Transitional credit is to be reflected in the Electronic Credit Ledger.
6. If required GST Council may also issue appropriate guidelines to the field formations in scrutinizing the claims.
Background
Many taxpayers could not claim the ‘Transitional Credit’ within the statutory time limit of December 27, 2017, due to technical glitches in GST portal or any other reasons. Many taxpayers had approached the High Courts seeking specific relief citing their vested right. There were specific directions of the several Courts in such cases, directing authorities to enable the option to claim transitional credit within specified timelines.
Editor’s comments
The Two month’s window to claim the transitional credit is a major relief to every taxpayer, who were not able to claim transitional credit due to GSTIN technical glitches or any other reasons.
The decision will address genuine concerns in claiming the transitional credit, for the reasons stated in the order. We are of the opinion that credit missed/unavailable on account of legal interpretations or cases where it is specifically restricted under the law, needs careful analysis to ascertain if the enabling provision could be of help to taxpayer for filing transitional claim and to take requisite actions at the earliest to ensure that the benefit is availed.
Appropriate guidelines are expected to be issued by the GST Council, which needs to be evaluated for proper compliance while claiming transitional credit.
