SC denies Rs 923-crore refund to Bharti Airtel, quashes HC order

The Supreme Court has set aside the Delhi High Court order, which had permitted Bharti Airtel to claim refund of Rs 923 crore of goods and services tax (GST) from the government. The telecom operator claimed that it had paid an excess GST for July-September, 2017 and wanted to rectify its relevant returns for that period to get the refund.

The company had pleaded that it had paid more taxes since the GST system faced technical glitches that time because of which it could not correctly estimate its input tax credit.

According to experts, the Supreme Court’s verdict will have ramifications for various companies that paid higher taxes because the IT systems — both of the government and of companies — had not stabilised in the initial phase of the GST roll-out. The GST system was introduced in July, 2017.