ASG N. Venkataraman's Dissection of SC’s Verdict in Bharti Airtel

Episode Duration:
70 minutes

Episode Background:
In a historic move, last Thursday, Division Bench of Supreme Court headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, reversed a Delhi HC order that had allowed the Telecom giant to claim GST refund of Rs. 923 crore by way of rectifying its GSTR-3B return for the same period. Drawing a parallel from pre-GST directive, the Top Court, reiterated that the primary obligation to do preparatory  work  for filing returns, such as self-assessment of Output Tax Liability, maintaining books of accounts and records, agreement, invoices/challans in manually/electronic form, vest only with the taxpayers in post-GST regime and they should not become wholly dependent on the common electronic portal. In this manner, the Apex Court called the plea of Bharti Airtel for claiming rectification of its GSTR-3B return due to non-noperability of purchase related tax return i.e. Form GSTR-2A, a ‘flimsy plea’.

From an understandable optics, it could be said that the High Court was being more sympathetic towards the difficulties of taxpayers due to jarring tech glitches in GSTN, but the  Supreme Court has effectively stated that such sympathy is out of place when in the first place, there is no necessity of taxpayers to rely upon the auto-generated information in the e-platform. The Court was of the firm opinion that any contrary indulgence against the statutory mandate by way of allowing unilateral rectification of returns submitted electronically in Form GSTR-3B, would simply lead to chaotic situation and collapse of tax administration of Union, States and Union Territories.  

What shall the episode cover?
Against this backdrop, Taxsutra is delighted to bring to you a special episode titled “ASG N. Venkataraman's dissection of SC’s Verdict in Bharti Airtel!”, with none other than Additional Solicitor General (ASG) N. Venkataraman who spearheaded the arguments on behalf of Govt. 
 

Key Highlights:

In this episode, ASG N. Venkatraman will comprehensively:

1. Analyze the contentions raised by both sides.
2. Shed light on what ‘cardinal question’ High Court missed.
3. Discuss the impact of this judgment going forward on rectification of GST Returns and industry practice in self-assessment of its OTL while filing returns.
4. Interplay of above ruling with SC decision in VKC Footsteps India Pvt. Ltd. [TS-472-SC-2021-GST] 
5. Examine how the ruling will benefit the taxpayers.