The Hon’ble High Court of Orissa vide its order dated 22.02.2023 in the matter of M/s Y.B. Constructions Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union Of India And Others in W.P. (C) No. 12232 of 2021, permitted the assessee to rectify its GSTR – 1 when the details were wrongly entered in form B2B instead of B2C.

The Petitioner filed the writ petition before the Hon’ble High Court seeking directions to the Respondents to permit the petitioner to rectify the GST Return filed for the periods 2017-18 and 2018-19 i.e., on 16th October 2017, 25th November 2017, 30th January 2018 and 30th March, 2019 in Form- B2B instead of B2C as was wrongly filed under GSTR-1 in order to get the Input Tax Credit (ITC) benefit by the principal contractor.

It was submitted on the behalf of the Petitioner that the error came to the knowledge when the principal contractor held up the legitimate running bill amount of the Petitioner, informing the above error.  Thereafter, it has been making requests to the respondents to permit it to correct the GSTR – 1 form but unsuccessful.

On the other hand, it was submitted on the behalf of the respondents that once the deadline for rectification of the Forms was crossed, then no further indulgence could be granted to the Petitioner.

Held: –

• The Hon’ble Court after considering the submissions made and facts of the case, found that if the Petitioner is permitted to rectify the above error, there will no loss whatsoever caused to the opposite parties/respondents. Further, it is not the case of evasion of tax, this is only about the ITC benefit which in any event has to be given to the Petitioner.  However, if it is not permitted, then the Petitioner will unnecessarily be prejudiced.
• The Hon’ble Court took reference of the judgment Of Madras High Court in M/s Sun Dye Chem Vs. The Assistant Commissioner ST – Writ petition No. 29676 of 2019, wherein the plea of the Petitioner was accepted and it was directed that the Petitioner should be permitted to file the corrected form.

The Hon’ble High Court with the above findings, disposed of the writ petition by permitting the Petitioner to resubmit the corrected GSTR – 1 for the aforementioned periods and direction was issued to the opposite parties/respondents to receive it manually, enabling the petitioner to do so.  Once the corrected Forms are received manually, the Department will facilitate the uploading of those details in the web portal. The directions be carried out within a period of four weeks.