NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today set aside the Delhi high court order that had allowed Bharti Airtel to rectify goods and services tax (GST) returns filed between July and September 2017 after the telecom operator said it paid excess tax on inputs worth Rs 923 crore in absence of a purchase-related tax return form.

The government had moved the apex court against Delhi High Court’s May 5, 2020, order which allowed Airtel the refund of excess GST returns filed in July-September 2017. 

In its order, the high court had directed the government to verify the excess GST claim within two weeks of the order and refund the amount to Bharti Airtel. 

The Sunil Mittal-led carrier had pleaded that it had paid an excess amount of Rs 923 crore as tax since the GSTR-2A form was not operational during the error period. However, the government had claimed that Airtel had under-reported input tax credit from July to September 2017. 

"Since there were no checks on Form GSTR-3B, which was manually filled by the petitioner, the excess payment of tax went unnoticed," said a copy of the high court order delivered on May 5. It added that Airtel, "desires to correct its returns, but is being prevented from doing so as there is no enabling statutory procedure implemented by the government." 

The top court said that it agreed with the government that any "indulgence shown contrary to the statutory mandate would not only be an illegality but in reality would simply lead to a chaotic situation and collapse of the tax administration of Union, States and Union Territories."

The order said, "As a result, Airtel cannot be permitted to unilaterally carry out rectification of its returns, submitted electronically in Form GSTR¬3B, which inevitably would affect the obligations and liabilities of other stakeholders because of the cascading effect in their electronic records."