The Supreme Court has reversed the Gujarat High Court’s judgment wherein the High Court observed that GSTR-3B is not a return specified under section 39 of the Central and State Goods and Services Acts.
In the year 2019, the Gujarat High Court held that Section 39(1) of the CGST/GGST Act provides that every taxpayer, except a few special categories of persons, shall furnish a monthly return in such form and manner as may be prescribed. Rule 61 of the CGST Rules/GGST Rules prescribe the form and manner of submission of monthly return. Sub-rule 1 of Rule 61 of the CGST Rules/GGST Rules provides that the return required to be filed in terms of Section 39(1) of the CGST/GGST Act is to be furnished in Form GSTR-3B.
The High Court further held that It would be apposite to state that initially it was decided to have three returns in a month, i.e. return for outward supplies i.e. GSTR-1 in terms of Section 37, return for inward supplies in terms of Section 38, i.e. GSTR-2 and a combined return in Form GSTR-3. However, considering technical glitches in the GSTN portal as well as the difficulty faced by the taxpayers it was decided to keep filing of GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 in abeyance. Therefore, in order to ease the burden of the taxpayer for some time, it was decided in the 18th GST Council meeting to allow the filing of a shorter return in Form GSTR-3B for the initial period. It was not introduced as a return in lieu of return required to be filed in Form GSTR-3. The return in Form GSTR-3B is only a temporary stop-gap arrangement till the due date of filing the return in Form GSTR-3 is notified. The division bench of Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice C.T.Ravi Kumar held that the High Court of Gujarat order was expressly overruled by a three-Judge Bench decision of this Court in Civil Appeal No.6520 of 2021 titled Union of India vs. Bharti Airtel Ltd. & Ors., reported in (2021) 13 SCALE 301.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan AdFree. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates.
