Delhi High Court allows Bharti Airtel to rectify its GST and get a refund of ₹923 Crores

The Delhi High Court directed the Centre to verify telecom company Bharti Airtel’s claim of excess GST of Rs 923 crore within two weeks and refund the amount once verified. Bharti Airtel claimed that there was the excess payment of taxes by way of cash. This excess payment amounted to a total of ₹923 crores. Bharti Airtel was looking to correct this error of excess payment but was being prevented from doing so, as there is no statutory enabling procedure implemented by the Government. The High Court held that refund of excess cash balance in terms of Section 49 (6) read with Section 54 of the CGST Act does not effectively redress the petitioner’s grievance. So, the only remedy which will enable the petitioner to enjoy the advantage of the seamless utilization of the input decrease is by way of rectification of its annual return, GSTR-3B.