ITC of GSt paid on Imports of Goods and provisioins of Sectioin 16 & Rule 36

[Vinay Kunte]

As per the amended provisions of Section 16(2) read with the Amended Rule 36(4) the ITC can be claimed only when the supplier has communicated the details of the Invoices to the recipient through the GSTR-1 Return and he has paid the GST to the government i.e. GSTR-3B Return has been filed by him.

Now, similar to the ITC of GST paid under RCM, the GST is paid on Import of Goods (IGST) at the time of clearance of Goods for Home Consumption from the Customs clearing station which is well before the receipt of the Goods.

Can the ITC of the IGST paid on Import of Goods be claimed even if the same is not auto-populated to GSTR-2B as all the conditions are satisfied to avail the ITC such as - the Goods are received under the cover of the document as defined under Section 31, GST has been paid to the government and the supply received is for furtherance of Business. There is no question of the supplier to be filing any GSTR-1 Return as well as a third party making the payment of GST to the Government.

It is observed that the BOE's are not auto-populated to the GST Portal under the GSTIN of the importers even if the same are correctly transmitted by the ICEGATE portal of the Customs. The search BOE transaction given by the GSTN is almost useless as each search requires 20-30 minutes and that too only if the reference date and BOE date is correct in search wherein the BOE date is readily available but the reference date in any one of the 3 dates - BOE date, Payment date or OOC Date which consumes a lot of Man-hours even after the payment of GST to the government and all other provisions of Law & rules are complied with.

Please provide your valuable guidance in the matter.

AI Summary

Input tax credit on imported goods can be claimed despite supplier disclosure rules, subject to supporting bill of entry documentation.
Availability of Input Tax Credit for IGST on imports is not constrained by the supplier invoice furnishing requirement because that restriction applies to supplier-issued invoices and debit notes, not to import documents such as the bill of entry. A departmental clarification supports that IGST on imports lies outside the supplier-disclosure limitation. Practitioners advise claiming credit where statutory ITC conditions are met while preserving evidence (BOE, ICEGATE records) and, if necessary, lodging a GST support ticket to avoid automated notices; reliance on the supplier-disclosure limitation may be used defensively if challenged.