Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) has written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her to resolve a continuing compliance issue involving input tax credit (ITC) on imported goods.The chamber said IGST paid on imports was often not reflected in the auto-generated GSTR-2B statement, even though the corresponding bill of entry (BoE) appeared in GSTR-2A. Since GSTR-2B is treated as a static statement for ITC reconciliation, the mismatch was creating difficulties for businesses, GCCI said.In its representation, the chamber acknowledged efforts to improve data integration between ICEGATE and the GST Network, including the introduction of the ‘Search BoE’ facility and the inclusion of BoEs in the invoice management system (IMS).However, GCCI said businesses continued to encounter cases in which import-related BoEs failed to appear in GSTR-2B, despite IGST having been paid to customs, the required documents being available and the credit being reported in GSTR-3B.For import transactions, the BoE is the principal document for claiming ITC. IGST, along with customs duty, is collected by the customs department and is eligible for credit when the prescribed conditions are met, the chamber said.GCCI pointed out that the existing workaround on the GST portal — under Services and User Services, followed by ‘Search BoE’ and the ‘Query ICEGATE’ option — did not consistently retrieve the relevant records. As a result, genuine credits remained unmatched in the system despite the tax having been paid.The chamber warned that automated comparisons between ITC claimed in GSTR-3B and the credit reflected in GSTR-2B could trigger system-generated flags and notices, including DRC-01 and DRC-01C.“BoE entry is a valid document for availing ITC on imports. However, the absence of these details in GSTR-2B raises concerns that unresolved mismatches could lead to restrictions on return filing and increase working capital pressure on importers,” said Nayan Sheth, chairman of GCCI’s indirect tax committee.
