The Supreme Court has given the finance ministry an extension of 30 days for the opening of the GST common portal. The top court on Friday also directed the GSTN to open the common portal for 60 days from October 1 till December 31. This was to “give full effect” to the court’s July 22 order that had allowed the taxpayers to claim an accumulated tax credit in the pre-GST indirect tax regime in 60 days. Earlier, the court had directed to open the portal from September 1 to October 30.

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In July, the Supreme Court division bench of Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice JK Maheshwari ruled that all businesses that were unable to claim tax credits when the indirect tax system switched to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) should be able to get transitional credit. The court also directed GSTN to open a common portal for all taxpayers to claim tax credits within 60 days.

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A tax credit is a component of a company's tax payment that is applied to offset a subsequent tax obligation. It’s the credit that taxpayers have so far carried forward from the erstwhile indirect tax regime to the new GST regime. The estimated value of genuine tax credit payable to taxpayers is between Rs 400 crore and Rs 500 crore, as per a Financial Express report.

Following the July 22 order, the finance ministry sought more time for opening the common portal. The ministry argued that there have been several changes in the system including changes in the TRAN 1 and TRAN 2 filings.

The issue began when the taxpayers were unable to file Form GST TRAN-1 within the due date prescribed under the rules of the Central Goods and Services, 2017 to carry forward accumulated input tax credits accrued during the pre-GST indirect tax regime. This resulted in the denial of credits due to the taxpayers.

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The taxpayers then sought relaxation in the time limit for filing petitions.

While deciding on about 400 appeals, the apex court on July 22 asked the government to provide a 60-day window for taxpayers to file fresh claims for transitional credit. The GSTN was also directed to ensure that there are no technical glitches during this period.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Sept 3, 2022 12:25 PM IST