Input tax credit must be claimed in prescribed returns; Form VAT 240 alone cannot substitute the statutory return.

Input tax credit under the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 had to be claimed through the prescribed monthly returns, filed in the statutory form and within time; Form VAT 240 was only an audited statement in specified cases and did not replace a return. Reading the provisions on net tax, input tax deduction, revised returns and reassessment together, the Court held that credit could not be taken on the basis of Form VAT 240 alone. Treating that form as an independent basis for credit would make the return-filing scheme redundant and create an impermissible distinction between dealers. The discrimination challenge therefore also failed.

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Issues: Whether input tax credit under the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 could be claimed on the basis of Form VAT 240 when the dealer had not claimed such credit in the monthly returns.

Analysis: The statutory scheme requires every registered dealer to file returns in the prescribed form and within the prescribed time, and the computation of net tax is to be made with reference to those returns. Form VAT 240 is an audited statement of accounts required in specified cases; it is not a return and does not substitute the return contemplated under the Act. The provisions governing net tax, input tax deduction, revised returns, and reassessment were read together, and the Court held that the claim for input tax credit had to be made in the manner and within the time prescribed. Accepting Form VAT 240 as an independent basis for credit would render the return-filing provisions redundant and create an impermissible distinction between classes of dealers. The constitutional challenge based on discrimination also failed for the same reason.

Conclusion: Input tax credit could not be availed merely on the basis of Form VAT 240 in the absence of a corresponding claim in the returns, and the dismissal of the challenge to the revisional order was justified.

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