The Kerala High Court directed the authority to permit the petitioner to upload the returns for the past period to avail eligible Input Tax Credit (ITC).
The petitioner, Madhav Motors is a dealer in automobiles and was registered under the GST Act and he was granted a provisional registration in terms of Section 139 (1) of the GST Act.
The petitioner, with a view of getting a permanent registration, he had attempted to upload the Form TRAN-1 for conversion of the provisional registration to a permanent registration as also for claiming input tax credit in respect of the tax paid on closing stock that was available with him at the time of the transition into the GST regime.
The petitioner submitted that despite a number of attempts made for the purpose, he was not able to login to the system and upload the TRAN-1 Form.
The petitioner attempted to generate e-way bills through the web portal of the respondents but, once again, could not do so since he had not received the permanent registration that he had applied for by then.
It is significant to note that, while the permanent registration was not granted, the provisional registration initially granted had also not been cancelled by the respondents through the procedure contemplated under the Act.
The provisional registration granted to the petitioner was not formally cancelled by the authorities by following the procedure envisaged under the Act for cancellation of the provisional registration.
Under such circumstances, the petitioner continued to function under the provisional registration granted to him, although the absence of a permanent registration resulted in a situation where he could not upload the returns and other documents enabling him to claim input tax credit in respect of the tax paid stock of material that was available with him.
The petitioner highlighted the discrepancy and stated it to be the reason why the benefit of input tax credit etc. are being denied to him, as also for his not being able to upload the returns for the period prior to January 4, 2020 in the web portal or system maintained by the respondent authority.
The Single Judge Bench of Justice Jayasankaran Nambiar held that when the provisional registration granted to the petitioner was not cancelled through the procedure contemplated under the Act and Rules, and the respondents had granted a regular registration on January 4, 2020, the permanent registration must relate back to the date of the provisional registration and the petitioner ought to be entitled to upload the returns for the past period and to avail eligible input tax credit based on the returns uploaded by him.
The bench while staging the reason for its decision said that it is admittedly the case that there was no formal order canceling the provisional registration, that was communicated to the petitioner in terms of the Act and Rules.
Therefore, the bench directed the respondent authority to amend the Registration Certificate issued to the petitioner so as to make it valid from July 1, 2017, and permit the petitioner to upload the returns and pay tax as well as claim input tax credit based on the returns so uploaded.
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