The Delhi High Court has granted relief to a company engaged in selling various pharmaceutical products and medical devices, ruling that its Input Tax Credit claim could not be rejected merely because its supplier had cited an incorrect GST number on the tax invoices.
In the facts of the case, a division bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Rajneesh Kumar Gupta noted that,
The only basis for rejecting the ITC is the mention of the Bombay office GSTN instead of the Delhi office GSTN. Substantial loss would be caused to the Petitioner if the credit is not granted for such a small error on behalf of the supplier.
The applicant had purchased a large quantity of products from M/s. Ahlcon Parenterals (India) Limited based on various purchase orders. However, the invoices for the stated products inadvertently reflected the Bombay address and Bombay GSTN of the applicant, instead of the Delhi GSTN number.
The same is directed to the impugned demand to the tune of Rs.5,65,91,691/- against the applicant on the ground that it had erroneously availed of excess ITC.
It was claimed by the applicant that it is a Delhi-based company and that the wrong reflection of its Bombay GSTN on the invoices was just an error by the supplier.
The High Court at the outset marked that the name of the applicant was wrongly cited in the invoices but the incorrect GST number was mentioned. Though no stand on the same issue was opted via the department in its counter affidavit.
After that, the court moved to put a direct query to the standing counsel for the department who conceded that no additional entity has claimed the ITC on these purchases/invoices.
Recommended: List of Goods and Services Not Eligible for Input Tax Credit
As per that, the court ruled that an error by the supplier in wrongly citing the purchaser’s GSTN could not be destructive to the latter.
Therefore it set aside the impugned demand and allowed the applicant to claim the ITC concerning the specified goods.
| Case Title | M/s B. Braun Medical India Pvt. Ltd. vs. Union of India & Ors. |
| Citation | W.P.(C) 114/2025 |
| Date | 12-03-2025 |
| Counsel For Petitioner | Mr. Tarun Gulati, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Ashwini Chandrasekaran, Mr. Mahir Chablani and Mr. Devansh, Advocates. |
| Counsel For Respondent | Mr. Shubham Tyagi, SSC for CBIC |
| Delhi High Court | Read Order |
