Input tax credit under the Karnataka VAT Act cannot be denied for delay where no limitation period is prescribed.

Input tax credit under Section 10(3) of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 cannot be denied merely because the claim was made belatedly, as no express limitation period is prescribed and no time bar can be implied from the statutory scheme. The court accepted that input tax credit is a substantive and indefeasible entitlement, and that procedural requirements governing returns cannot defeat genuine credit claims where the invoices and entitlement are otherwise verifiable. A claim will not fail only because the invoices relate to a different tax period. The revision petition was not entertained.

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Issues: Whether input tax credit under Section 10(3) of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 can be denied on the ground that the claim was made belatedly, and whether any time limit could be implied from the statutory scheme.

Analysis: The Court followed the binding view that Section 10(3) does not prescribe a period of limitation for availing input tax credit. It approved the principle that input tax credit is an indefeasible right and that the procedural provisions governing returns cannot defeat the substantive entitlement to credit. The Court also accepted that belated credit claims cannot be rejected merely because the invoices relate to a different tax period, so long as the entitlement is otherwise genuine and verifiable.

Conclusion: Belated claim of input tax credit could not be denied on the ground of delay, and no time limit was read into Section 10(3) of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003. The revision petition was not entertained.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of an express statutory time bar, input tax credit under Section 10(3) of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 remains an indefeasible substantive right and cannot be defeated by procedural or machinery provisions relating to the filing of returns.

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