Bombay High Court Directs Dept. To Permit Amend In GSTR-1, Either Online Or Manual

The Bombay High Court has directed the department to permit the petitioner or assessee to amend or rectify Form GSTR-1 for the period July 2021, November 2021, and January 2022, either online or manually.

The bench of Justice G. S. Kulkarni and Justice Jitendra Jain has observed that a bona fide, inadvertent error in furnishing details in a GST return needs to be recognized and permitted to be corrected by the department when, in such cases, the department is aware that there is no loss of revenue to the government. The free play in the joint requires eminent recognition. The department needs to avoid unwarranted litigation on issues and make the system more assessee-friendly. The approach would also foster the interest of revenue in the collection of taxes.

The petitioner is engaged in designing, developing, manufacturing, and supplying a wide range of electronic components for industrial purposes. It is a regular supplier to Bajaj Auto Limited (BAL) and delivers its products based on varying delivery terms as specified in the purchase orders received from BAL.

The petitioner contended that during the financial year 2021-2022, the petitioner had carried out delivery of the goods to several third-party vendors, and simultaneously, invoices were generated “Bill-to-Ship-to-Model” in line with the instructions received from BAL. The company had correctly issued the e-invoices and credit notes in favor of BAL by appropriately citing its GST identification number (GSTIN). However, at the time of filing Form GSTR-1 for the period July 2021, November 2021, and January 2022, the inadvertent GSTIN of third parties to whom the shipment was delivered was reported instead of the GSTIN of BAL.

The petitioner contended that it was arbitrary for the Deputy Commissioner of State Tax to reject the petitioner's request to amend or rectify Form GSTR-1 either online or by manual means.

The department contended that no fault can be found in the impugned communication as the provisions of the GST Act itself would not permit the State Tax Officer to accept the request as made by the petitioner for amendment or rectification of Form GSTR-1.

The court held that the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 37 read with Section 38 and sub-sections (9) and (10) of Section 39 need to be purposefully interpreted.

“We cannot read sub-section (3) of Section 37 to mean that the assessee would be prevented from placing the correct position and having accurate particulars in regard to all the details in the GST returns being filed by the assessee and that there would not be any scope for any bona fide or inadvertent rectification or correction,” the court said.

Counsel For Petitioner: Bharat Raichandani

Counsel For Respondent: Shruti D. Vyas

Case Title: Star Engineers (I) Pvt. Ltd. Versus Union of India

Case No.: Writ Petition No.15368 Of 2023

Click Here To Read The Order