Rs 923cr Airtel claim nixed by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside a Delhi high court order which allowed Bharti Airtel’s plea to rectify the input tax credit claim of excess goods and services tax (GST) paid of around Rs 923 crore from July to September 2017 saying that the rectification of errors and omissions is permissible only at the initial stages.

A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari allowed the appeal filed by the Centre against the high court’s May 5, 2020 judgment which permitted Airtel to rectify Form GSTR-3B, the GST summary return form for the period.

The apex court said an assessee cannot be permitted to unilaterally carry out rectification of his returns submitted electronically in Form GSTR-3B,