The Finance Ministry is unlikely to accept the request made by industry bodies and CA association to extend the due date for claiming input tax credit for the period July 2017-March 2018.

According to the rule, a registered person shall not be entitled to take input tax credit in respect of any invoice or debit note for supply of goods or services or both after due date of furnishing of the return under section 30 for the month of September following the end of financial year to which such invoice or invoice relating to such debit note pertains or furnishing of the relevant annual return, whichever is earlier.

Return for the month of September has to be filed by October 20 while last date for filing annual return (for financial year 2017-18) is December 31.

“As of now, there is no plan to extend the due date from October 20 to December 31,” a Finance Ministry official told BusinessLine . This meant that the businesses have been left with just three days (including one gazetted holiday on October 19) to file the return online. There have been issues regarding GSTR Form 3B. There are arguments that rules talk about GSTR 1, 2 and 3 and not 3B which means if the matter goes to court, there will be problem for the Government.

“GSTR 3B has been notified under relevant section of the law and accordingly it is in use after suspending GSTR 2 and 3. We are hopeful that this arrangement will be able to stand legal scrutiny,” the official said while adding some States also asked for clarification on the filing issue.

Too many paper works

Various industry bodies and CA body have argued for extending the date on the grounds that very little time was left to complete too many paper works. They said the due date for filing Income Tax Return and Audit report was October 15 which means businesses have just 5 days to prepare the input tax credit claims. And now the problem is that any wrong entry will prove costly. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said, “Consequence of incorrect claim of input tax credit are grave (in terms of interest at 24 per cent) and hence tax payers are yet to identify and claim correct input tax credits.”

ICAI had said even legally Form GSTR3B is not a return in lieu of Form GSTR-3. Moreover, all the notifications providing for due dates or extending the said due dates for filing of returns will be notified separately. According to ICAI, in the above backdrop, it is contended that there is no due date for filing return (Form GSTR 3) under section 39 of the CGST Act 2017 and hence, input tax credit pertaining to the financial year 2017-18 can be claimed till the date of filing of the annual return. “This interpretation may also lead to disputes and aggrieved assessee may drag the matter to the court, which needs to be avoided,” it said.

It has listed difficulties such as maintenance of books of accounts and records under the GST law, classification issues, reconciliation of inward/outward supplies and claim of input tax credit for multi-location tax payers may require longer time beside many other issues. It said only at the time of preparation of annual returns, along with the reconciliation statement, that the tax payers will come to know the input tax credit and which has not yet been claimed pertaining to last fiscal. Accordingly, it appealed for extension of the date.