The Hon’ble Supreme recently (on 22nd July 2022) has disposed off SLP filed by the Union of India to review various judgements given by the Hon’ble High Courts, wherein judiciary had allowed relief to the taxpayers for filing of TRAN-1 / TRAN-2 form even after the due dates. The relief was granted owning to dysfunctional GSTN network or delay in filing by the taxpayers due to reasons beyond their control.
The Union Government had filed SLP before the Hon’ble Supreme Court to re-consider the various orders passed by the courts across India. The Hon’ble Supreme Court while deciding on the matter, not only gave relief to taxpayers who has filed the cases before the courts but also to all the taxpayers who had missed in filing the TRAN-1 or who needed to revise the same.
In its order, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has ruled that,
- 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.
- 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).
- GSTN has to ensure that there are no technical glitches during the said time.
- 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.
- Thereafter, the allowed Transitional credit is to be reflected in the Electronic Credit Ledger.
- If required GST Council may also issue appropriate guidelines to the field formations in scrutinizing the claims.
During implementation GST, the provision allowed transition of existing credits (CENVAT Credit / VAT Set-off etc) into GST regime subject to certain conditions. However, the credits were allowed to be migrated into GST subject to filing of specified form TRAN-1 / TRAN-2 on GSTN Portal. Many taxpayers missed on filing TRAN-1 / TRAN-2 due to technical glitches on GSTN portal. GSTN had some built-in validations on the portal which technically did not allowed transition of credit due to incorrected mapping of the data. Further the portal was not responding due to load which resulted in non-filing of forms on GSTN portal. This led to substantial loss / blockage to the taxpayer during transition to GST. High Courts in many cases, opined that non filing of forms on GSTN portal due to technical glitches cannot be the reasons for denying substantial benefits and asked authorities to re-open the forms in such specific cases.
However, the Hon’ble Supreme Court while disposing the matters has allowed all the taxpayers irrespective whether they filed writ petition before the High Court or whether the case of the taxpayer has been decided by Information Technology Grievance Redressal Committee (ITGRC) to either file the TRAN-1 / TRAN-2 or revise the same during the period 01.09.2022 to 31.10.2022. Further the Hon’ble Supreme Court has directed the GSTN to ensure that during this period, there are no glitches on the portal. The transition of the credit will be subject to verification by the jurisdictional officer. Post verification of the claim, the jurisdictional authorities will pass order of crediting the amount in electronic credit ledger.
The above order was much needed considering the above facts. It is GST council will issue guidelines on this to ensure uniformity is maintained while processing such claims.
By virtue of this order, taxpayer can undertake following,
- The taxpayer who completely missed filing TRAN-1 can file TRAN-1 so that the credits lying as on 30.06.2017 can be carried forward in GST.
- If the taxpayer has missed to carry forward credit lying as on 30.06.2017 for any specific registration under Central Excise Act or respective State VAT Act. Such credits can be claimed by filing revised TRAN-1 form.
- Pending capital goods credit pertaining to earlier period but not claimed while filing TRAN-1.
- Transactions wherein the duties and taxes paid under the earlier regime, but input or input services are received on or after the 1st July 2017. These credits can be claimed by filing revised TRAN-1 Form.
- Taxpayer who missed to file TRAN-1 within the due date but availed the transitional credits in GSTR-3B.
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