Jharkhand Railway Scrap Auction in Bihar Prompts IGST vs. CGST and SGST Debate

• Vishwanath Iron Store is a petitioner asking for the adjustment of an invoice so that they can claim an ITC. The petitioner is a partnership business in Bihar under the 2017 Bihar State Goods and Services Tax Act.

• In this case, they purchase goods worth Rs. 17 lakh after taking part in the East Central Railway. The original invoice charged 9% each for CGST and SGST. The assessee points out that the tax was considered to have been collected as IGST rather than CGST and SGST.

• As can be observed from the delivery and sale-related order itself, The goods were delivered to the petitioner in Jharkhand, and the sale is shown to be a local sale. The auction was held in Samastipur, and the sale was to be carried out from Jharkhand, so it cannot be said to be an interstate sale unless it involved the movement of goods outside the state.

• However, there is absolutely nothing to prove the movement of goods to the state of Bihar. So the petitioner cannot request an ITC based on that invoice.

• In this case, it needs to be stated that nothing has been shown that the goods had moved outside the state of Jharkhand.

• We also noticed that the invoice was generated during the 2017-18 assessment year, and the petitioner filed it in 2021. ITC would not have been available in any case.

• According to Section 16(4) of the BGST Act, input tax credit must be claimed after the due date for filing the return under Section 39, in the month of September following the end of the financial year to which the invoice or debit note pertains, or upon filing the relevant annual return, whichever is earlier.

• The invoice is dated October 23 ,2017 so ITC must be claimed before November 28, 2017, which ever comes first, or by submitting the annual return for the years 2017–18. The court finds no reason to order the railway to issue a new invoice, and at this moment, there is no chance that the ITC will be available. Vishwanath Iron Store Vs. Union of India