The Kerala High Court bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas rendered that the GST department provides the amending of Form GST TRAN-1 and furnishing of Form GST TRAN-2 through making required arrangements on the web portal.
Under the Kerala, Value Added Tax Act, 2003 as well as the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, the applicant was a registered dealer. The taxpayer is engaged in the business of trading in iron and steel products along with the additional accessories and related things.
The petitioner is said to have Rs. 19,28,654 as an unused ITC beneath the former tax regime. Post the start of the GST the applicant submitted a declaration on form GST TRAN-1 affirming the details of the credit to be claimed during filing Form GST TRAN-2. But when trying to complete form TRAN-2, the applicant was prompt with the error message showing that the same has not declared anything in Part 7B of Table 7(a) of Form GST TRAN-1 and hence can not fill out details in Table 4 of TRAN-2.
Pursuant to the receipt of the error message and on verification, the applicant discovered that, while filling up form GST TRAN-1, an unintentional mistake was created by filling in Table 7 (d) of Part 7B of form GST TRAN-1 instead of Table 7 (a) of Part 7B. The applicant then results in not fill out the form GST TRAN-2 and transitions the ITC to the electronic ledger.
The applicant rendered that accidentally the mix-up of fields in the GST form occurred, because of unawareness of the nascent legislation, and should not be treated as fatal to the entitlement of the applicant to take the credit. The applicant represented the GST official, asking for redress of its grievance and requesting approval to amend the TRAN-1 for filing TRAN-2. The applicant obtain the answer via the department showing that a one-time facility to finish the TRAN-1 process gets prolonged for those taxpayers who can not furnish TRAN-1 because of issues as mentioned in Circular dated 03/04/2018. December 27, 2017, was the date of revising the declaration on form GST TRAN-1, and no orders for the extension of the time get allowed.
GST TRAN-1 is the transition form to be furnished for the assessee who was enrolled beneath the pre-GST regime to claim the accumulated Input tax left in their account on the day former to the appointed day. The form would be furnished by every individual who has a GST ITC on the closing stock and who has transferred to GST. The balance of closing stock held by the taxpayer on the appointed day ought to be disclosed in TRAN-1 to claim the input tax credit on the old stock in the GST regime.
The court reported that the glitch was an error of the bonafide and happen due to the error in perception and comprehension of minute details of the new formats to be submitted. Refusing the relief of improving the error is only called arbitrary and unreasonable.
The court revealed that the mistake in furnishing the TRAN-I form was original and in this case, the error must not prevent the applicant from availing or being qualified to claim what is the other conception which is legal because of it.
The court mentioned that the council to provide the amended form GST TRAN-1 submitted by the applicant to furnish the form GST TRAN-2 by making the needed arrangements on the GST portal. When it is not able to get happen, for allowing the manual filing of the returns by the applicant as quickly as possible at any cost within the duration of 2 months.
