In a recent ruling, the Madras High Court has allowed the assessee to rectify the clerical error which ultimately denied the Input Tax Credit ( ITC ) under Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) Act. The petitioner-assessee, Tvl.Thendral Electricals, was entitled to an ITC of Rs. 1,92,867 under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act, as reflected in Form GSTR-2A.

This amount was auto-populated based on sales reported by the petitioner’s suppliers. However, during the filing of the monthly return in Form GSTR-3B, the petitioner inadvertently entered the ITC under the wrong columns. While the ITC was supposed to be recorded under the “Integrated Tax” head in column 4A(1)(2), the petitioner mistakenly bifurcated the credit into “Central Tax” and “State Tax” in columns 4A(1)(3) and 4A(1)(4). As a result, the GST authorities denied the ITC claim, asserting that the error disqualified the petitioner from availing the credit under the IGST Act. Master GST – Expert-Led Courses for Ambitious Professionals, Click Here

The petitioner’s counsel argued that this mistake was purely clerical and should not result in the denial of the ITC. The error was evident from the records, and therefore, the disallowance was unjustified. The Additional Government Pleader representing the respondent, upon instruction, proposed that the petitioner be allowed to file a rectification petition within two weeks from the receipt of the court’s order.

It was also submitted that after the filing of petition, the same would be considered after affording opportunity for hearing. Justice Mohammed Shaffiq accepted this proposal, allowing the petitioner to file a rectification petition under Section 161 of the TNGST Act. The petition was directed to file the rectification petition within two weeks from the receipt of the order, and the court emphasized that failure to do so would result in the revival of the impugned order.