The Government has now fixed a deadline of 31^st March 2018, for filing Form GST TRAN 2 for the months of July 2017 to December 2017. Notification No.12/2018 – Central Tax was issued on 7^th March 2018, stating this dead line.

Prior to this notification, the Rules did not specify any timeline for filing Form GST TRAN 2.

Traders / distributors who had stock as on 30^th June, which was subjected to excise duty but did not have any excise invoice to claim credit, were eligible to claim a deemed credit of 40% / 60% of CGST portion. The notification issued yesterday (7^th March 2018) replaces Rule 117(4)(b)(iii) with following provision:

“The registered person availing of this scheme and having furnished the details of stock held by him in accordance with the provisions of clause (b) of sub-rule (2), submits a statement in FORM GST TRAN 2 by 31st March 2018, or within such period as extended by the Commissioner, on the recommendations of the Council, for each of the six tax periods during which the scheme is in operation indicating therein, the details of supplies of such goods effected during the tax period”

Here is a quick run through of the conditions / eligibility criteria under the scheme to claim deemed credit by filing Form GST TRAN 2:

• The registered person claiming this benefit should not be a manufacturer or a service provider. So, traders, distributors, retailers are eligible
• Such person should not be in possession of an excise invoice. Normally traders, distributors & retailers who don’t buy directly from manufacturers will not have an ‘excise invoice’ but the goods they buy would be subjected to excise duty at the time of sale from manufacturer to the first buyer. All subsequent sales would be only through VAT invoices, not specifying excise duty.
• The dealer availing this scheme has a document evidencing procurement (i.e., a sale / VAT invoice from the vendor)
• Goods for which this scheme is availed were not unconditionally exempt from excise duty, nor were subject to ‘nil’ excise duty
• The dealer must have submitted details of such stock held as on 30^th June 2017 (without having excise invoice) in Table 7 (a) of Form GST TRAN-1
• Deemed credit is available, calculated at 20% of GST (if GST rate is less than 18%) or 30% of GST (if GST rate is 18% or more) as the case may be. This is computed on the value of goods sold during July 2017 to December 2017
• There is no condition that such stock should have been purchased during one year preceding implementation of GST. This scheme is available even for older stocks
• If goods are not sold by December 2017, deemed credit is not available to that extent.

The dealer has to establish that benefit of such credit has been passed on to the customers by way of reduced prices.

BCL India would be happy to help with any questions that you may have on GST. Please feel free to write to us on pavan@bclindia.in or info@bclindia.in.

You can also drop us a mail on www.bclindia.in/contact/

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