On 28 July, the Kerala High Court said that a taxpayer should not be refused the statutory benefit of ITC u/s 16(5) of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act only because it did not submit a rectification application within the due date stipulated under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. permitted the petition of Wild Planet Pvt. Ltd. and quashed the order refusing the company GST input tax credit (ITC), holding that Section 16(5) grants a statutory entitlement retrospectively and that a late filing of a rectification application cannot take away that advantage when the taxpayer otherwise fulfils the statutory norms. He said that-
“I am of the view that, merely because of the reason that the petitioner did not submit a rectification application within the time specified above, his claim need not be rejected. This is particularly because, as far as the right to claim the Input Tax Credit under Section 16(5) of the Act is concerned, it is a statutory entitlement, and it is a provision introduced retrospectively. Therefore, merely because there occurred some delay on the part of the petitioner, that statutory benefit, to which the petitioner is otherwise entitled, need not be declined…”
The case stemmed from an order issued u/s 73 of the CGST Act, which gives the department the authority to assess tax that was either unpaid or underpaid, except in cases of fraud or willful misstatement.
The department denied Wild Planet’s input tax credit (ITC) on the basis that the company had not submitted its returns within the deadline specified in Section 16(4).
Wild Planet argued that it was entitled to relief under Section 16(5), which provides retrospective relief to taxpayers who file their returns by a specified cut-off date.
Read Also: Kerala HC Affirms ITC Benefit for Taxpayers Filing GST Returns Within Section 16(5) Deadline
However, the department claimed that Wild Planet could not take advantage of this provision because the deadline of June 30, 2025, for filing a rectification application, as outlined in the relevant CBIC circular, had passed.
The Court did not accept the objection, holding that the lapse of the time specified for filing a rectification application could not put out the regulatory right to claim ITC under section 16(5).
The Bench said that the SCN itself recorded that Wild Planet had submitted the relevant returns on 25 December 2020 and 29 December 2020, which comes within the duration mentioned u/s 16(5).
Therefore, the HC set aside the department’s order and asked the assessing authority to reconsider the case and furnish the ITC benefit u/s 16(5), on the condition of fulfilling the other norms by Wild Planet.
| Case Title | M/s Wild Planet Pvt. Ltd. vs. The Superintendent, Central Tax & Central Excise |
| Case No | WP(C) NO. 7801 OF 2026 |
| Petitioner | Shri. P. Raghunathan, Smt. M.Shylaja, Shri. Rishal.K |
| Respondent | Shri. J.Vishnu |
| Kerala High Court | Read Order |
