Inputs to be Claimed while filing GSTR-3B whether as per GSTR-2A or GSTR-2B

It’s a very com­mon ques­tion while fil­ing GSTR-3B, which Inputs to be con­sid­ered whether as per GSTR-2A which stood as on the date of fil­ing GSTR-3B or as per the Inputs avail­able in GSTR-2B for the respec­tive Month.

Some peo­ple are claim­ing Inputs as per GSTR-2A which stood as on the date of fil­ing GSTR-3B and some are claim­ing as per GSTR-2B as GST Por­tal is mark­ing it as in Red if we claim Input more than 105% of Input avail­able in 2B.

Its nowhere in the GST Act or Rules clear­ly writ­ten that which input is valid­ly claimable. Fur­ther its nowhere men­tioned that what to fol­low GSTR-2A or GSTR-2B for claim­ing Inputs while fil­ing GSTR-3B. Now Rule 36(4) (which was intro­duced by Noti­fi­ca­tion No-49/2019 dat­ed 09.10.2019) updat­ed up to Noti­fi­ca­tion No- 94/2020 dat­ed 22^nd Decem­ber, 2020 states that-

“Rule 36(4) Input tax cred­it to be availed by a reg­is­tered per­son in respect of invoic­es or deb­it notes, the details of which have not been fur­nished by the sup­pli­ers under sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 37 in FORM GSTR‑1 or using the invoice fur­nish­ing facil­i­ty, shall not exceed 5 per cent. of the eli­gi­ble cred­it avail­able in respect of invoic­es or deb­it notes the details of which have been fur­nished by the sup­pli­ers under sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 37 in Form GSTR‑1 or using the invoice fur­nish­ing facility.”

Bare read­ing of Rule do not clar­i­fy the above con­fu­sion and one can con­clude that claim­ing Inputs as per GSTR-2A which stood as on the date of fil­ing GSTR-3B is correct.

CBIC in its Cir­cu­lar No- 123/42/2019 dat­ed 11.11.2019 clar­i­fied that:

“Issue: FORM GSTR-2A being a dynam­ic doc­u­ment, what would be the amount of input tax cred­it that is admis­si­ble to the tax­pay­ers for a par­tic­u­lar tax peri­od in respect of invoic­es / deb­it notes whose details have not been uploaded by the suppliers?

Clar­i­fi­ca­tion: The amount of input tax cred­it in respect of the invoic­es / deb­it notes whose details have not been uploaded by the sup­pli­ers shall not exceed 20% of the eli­gi­ble input tax cred­it avail­able to the recip­i­ent in respect of invoic­es or deb­it notes the details of which have been uploaded by the sup­pli­ers under sub- sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 37 as on the due date of fil­ing of the returns in FORM GSTR‑1 of the sup­pli­ers for the said tax peri­od. The tax­pay­er may have to ascer­tain the same from his auto pop­u­lat­ed FORM GSTR 2A as avail­able on the due date of fil­ing of FORM GSTR‑1 under sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 37.”

The Cir­cu­lar states that Input can be claimed in GSTR-3B of a par­tic­u­lar month which is avail­able in GSTR-2A upto the due date of fil­ing GSTR‑1 of that par­tic­u­lar month. GSTIN has enabled GSTR-2B to show inputs avail­able upto the due date of fil­ing GSTR‑1 of that par­tic­u­lar month includ­ing the inputs which were not uploaded in ear­li­er months.

So, it can be con­clud­ed that Input can be claimed upto 105% of the inputs avail­able in GSTR-2B. How­ev­er one has to take cau­tion while claim­ing inputs as per GSTR-2B that whether the inputs avail­able in GSTR-2B is ear­li­er con­sid­ered in 5% of excess inputs we claimed in ear­li­er months as GSTR-2B shows inputs of ear­li­er months too which were uploaded lat­er dur­ing the spec­i­fied period.

Now if we take an Exam­ple it will clear the sce­nario more clearly:

Mr. P has Eli­gi­ble Input of Rs. 1,00,000 for the Month of Decem­ber 2020 and unclaimed Input till Decem­ber 2020 of Rs. 25,000, Total Eli­gi­ble Input of Rs. 1,25,000/-

Par­tic­u­lars	Amount(Rs.)
Input avail­able as per GSTR-2B	1,00,000 (out of Which Rs. 20,000 per­tains to ear­li­er months)
Input avail­able as per GSTR-2A as on the date of fil­ing GSTR-3B	Rs. 1,20,000/- (out of Which Rs. 25,000 per­tains to ear­li­er months)
Eli­gi­ble Inputs can be claimed in GSTR-3B	Rs. 1,05,000/- (i.e., Rs. 1,00,000 as per GSTR-2B + 5% of Eli­gi­ble Inputs which are not uploaded in its GSTR‑1 by the Counter party.)