Guide on GSTR-2B: Auto-drafted ITC Statement

GSTR-2B is a new static month-wise auto-drafted statement for regular taxpayers (whether or not opted into the QRMP scheme) introduced on the GST portal. The statement was launched from the August 2020 tax period onwards.

Introduction to GSTR-2B

GSTR-2B provides eligible and ineligible Input Tax Credit (ITC) for each month, similar to GSTR-2A but remains constant or unchanged for a period. In other words, whenever a GSTR-2B for a month is accessed on the GST portal, the data in it remains the same without being changed for subsequent changes by their suppliers in later months. 

GSTR-2B is available to all normal, SEZ and casual taxpayers. Every recipient can generate it on the basis of the GSTR-1, GSTR-5 and GSTR-6 furnished by their suppliers. 

The statement will clearly show document-wise details of ITC eligibility. ITC information will be covered from the filing date of GSTR-1 for the preceding month (M-1) up to the filing date of GSTR-1 for the current month (M). 

For instance, GSTR-2B generated for July 2023 will contain documents filed by their suppliers from 12 a.m. on 14th July 2023 up to 11:59 p.m. on 13th August 2023. The statement for July 2023 will be generated on 14th August 2023.

Importance and benefits of GSTR-2B

The data in GSTR-2B is reported in a manner that allows taxpayers to conveniently reconcile ITC with their own books of accounts and records. It will help them in easier identification of documents to ensure the following:

• The input tax credit is not availed twice against a particular document.
• The tax credit is reversed as per the GST law in their GSTR-3B, wherever required.
• GST is correctly paid on a reverse charge basis for the applicable documents, including import of services.
• The statement indicates the respective tables or columns of GSTR-3B under which the input tax credit of an invoice/debit note must be taken.

When was GSTR-2B made available?

GSTR-2B has been made available from August 2020 onwards. Until January 2021, it could be generated by recipient taxpayers once a month on the 12th of the month next to the tax period. 
For instance, GSTR 2B for August 2023 can be accessed on 12th September 2023.

From January 2021 onwards, taxpayers can generate the GSTR-2B on or after the 14th of every month for a tax period. For instance, GSTR 2B for October 2023 can be accessed on 14th November 2023. 

The timelines for the generation of GSTR-2B can be checked out on the government portal under the ‘View Advisory’ tab.

How to access GSTR-2B on the GST portal?

The following are the steps to access GSTR 2B, available from 12th August 2020: 

Step 1: Log in to the GST portal. A taxpayer must use his/her credentials to log in. 

Step 2: Navigate to the ‘Returns Dashboard’. 

Step 3: Select the relevant tax period. Select the month and financial year.

Step 4: On the ‘GSTR-2B’ tile, you may either click on ‘View’ or ‘Download’, as per the need.

(a) Download:

If the total number of documents in all tables of GSTR-2B exceeds 1,000, you can either use the advanced search option or download the document information in excel/JSON format from the GSTR-2B download page. Click the download button to go to the GSTR-2B download page. 

(b) View:

If the number of line items is less than 1,000, then you may use the ‘View’ option.

Step 5: Take suitable action on the GSTR-2B based on the option chosen in Step 4.

(a) Intend to download:

If you plan to download, click on the button known as “Generate JSON File To Download” to check out the statement on Offline Matching Tool. Alternatively, click on the “Generate Excel file to download” button to obtain the data in the excel file on your system.

(b) Intend to view:

GSTR-2B screen appears and has two tabs called Summary And All Tables.

The Summary tab is further classified into two parts:

• Part A (ITC Available): 

ITC summary value of credits available as on its generation date and is divided into credit that can be availed and credit that must be reversed (Table 3)

• Part B (ITC not Available):

ITC summary value of credits not available and is classified into ITC unavailable and ITC reversal (Table 4)

You can fetch the documents by clicking on the hyperlinked text of B2B – Invoices, B2B – Debit notes, B2B – Invoices (Amendment) and B2B – Debit notes (Amendment).

 The All Tables tab will have the ITC information that can be sorted as per the tables of the GSTR-2B form such as B2B, B2BA, B2B CDNR, B2B CDNRA, ISD, ISDA, IMPG and IMPGSEZ.  

Further, ITC appears document-wise (document details) with filters to sort data as per your need. Further, you can filter data supplier-wise as well.

Note: For Import of goods from overseas on the bill of entry – IMPG table, only document details are available and no supplier wise details are available.

Contents and features of GSTR-2B

The input tax credit on purchases from any regular taxpayers and non-resident taxable persons will be available in GSTR-2B. Further, the input tax credit distributed by the input service distributor shall also be available. 
The contents of GSTR-2B can be summarised as follows:

1. Summary statement showing ‘ITC available’ and ‘ITC not available’ for every section.
2. Advisory for every section clarifies the kind of action that taxpayers must take.
3. Document-wise details such as invoices, credit notes, debit notes, etc. to view and download along with amendments.
4. Cut-off dates and advisory for generating and using GSTR-2B.
5. Import of goods and import from SEZ units/developers (available from GSTR 2B of August 2020 onwards).

The form GSTR-2B is classified into two categories:

• ITC is available: PART-A of ITC Available contains details of inward supplies, credit-debit notes (CDN), including amendments, and import of goods divided into four parts- ITC for supplies from registered persons, ITC from ISD, ITC towards inward supplies on reverse charge and import of goods. Whereas, PART-B is ITC Reversal has one part called ‘Others’ that contains details of credit notes and amendments.
• ITC is not available: PART-A of ITC Not Available has purchase invoice or CDN details, including any amendments, divided into three parts- All other ITC for supplies from registered persons, ITC from ISD and ITC towards inward supplies on reverse charge. Whereas, PART-B has CDN details and amendments under the ‘Others’ heading.

Note: Amendment tables in GSTR-2B give only the differential tax amount (Amended – Original), also referred to as the delta value. But the document details will display revised details with reference to the original document.

The input tax credit will be marked as ‘not available’ in the following scenarios:

• Where the time limit to avail input tax credit on an invoice or debit note has expired under section 16(4) of the CGST Act (earlier of 30th September of the year following the financial year or date of filing annual returns).
• The state of the supplier and place of supply is the same, whereas the recipient is located in another state.
• When the purchaser is not eligible for Input Tax Credit towards an invoice or debit note is issued for the supply of goods or services, or both.

The notable features of GSTR-2B are as follows:

• To view and download the summary statement as a PDF file.
• Can obtain section-wise details or complete download of ITC instantly.
• Availability of section-wise advisory.
• Allows text search for all the generated records.
• Option to view, filter and sort data, as required.
• Hide/view the columns as per the user’s convenience.
• Where the file contains more than 1,000 records, options for a full download of GSTR-2B and an advanced search is available.
• An email or an SMS will be sent to the taxpayer informing them about the generation of GSTR 2B.
• Only documents filed by suppliers/ISD in their GSTR-1/5/6 are reflected.

The detailed format of GSTR-2B

Here’s a glimpse of a downloaded GSTR 2B:

To get the detailed template of GSTR-2B, click on ‘Download Now’.

Comparison of GSTR-2A with GSTR-2B

GSTR-2A and GSTR 2B can be compared as follows:  

**An Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) has been introduced for quarterly GSTR-1 filers to upload their supply invoices so that the recipient of supplies can continuously avail input tax credit. 

GSTR-2B vs GSTR-3B : Matching Purchase register with GSTR-2B

It is recommended that taxpayers reconcile the data provided in GSTR-2B with their own records and books of accounts. Taxpayers must make certain that

• Input tax credit cannot be taken twice for the same supply.
• Credit is reversed in GSTR-3B in accordance with the GST Act and Rules.
• Tax is charged on a reverse charge basis and paid to the government.
• Tax credit is being availed for the tax which has been actually paid to the supplier.
• The purchase invoices against which tax credit is going to be claimed in GSTR-3B is found in the GSTR-2B in compliance with Section 16 of the CGST Act.
• Until 31st December 2021, taxpayers could have arrived at the provisional amount of tax credit for GSTR-3B which is 5% of the available tax credit as per GSTR-2B, as per CGST Rule 36(4). From 1st January 2022, it is no longer available due to the amendment made to CGST Rule 36(4) vide the Central Tax notification no. 40/2021 dated 29th December 2021 and the Central Tax notification no. 39/2021 dated 21st December 2021.
• No excess tax credit is claimed, otherwise it must be paid back later on with an interest of 24% per annum.
• ITC belonging to a particular financial year towards purchase invoices or debit notes raised in that financial year must be availed before a deadline under the GST law. It is earlier of the due date of filing GSTR-3B for September of the year following that financial year or GST annual return filing date.
• No major mismatches exist between GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B that can lead to the cancellation of GST registration.

Matching GSTR-2B with purchase books is more important than matching with the GSTR-3B. It is because, from late 2020 onwards, GSTR-3B is being auto-populated with the values from GSTR-1 and GSTR-2B forms for the corresponding tax period. Hence, there are lesser chances for any mismatches. 

Once the values are taken from GSTR-2B, the values from GSTR-2A need not be taken. The GST portal provides an option for taxpayers to match their purchase register with the GSTR-2B form known as the Offline Matching Tool. It is critical that you add data and import it into the tool in the same format as given on the GST portal. Otherwise, the tool will produce an error, and you will be unable to continue matching GSTR-2B records with the purchase register.

Matching of entries between the two data must be based on the following parameters:

• GSTIN
• Document type
• Document number
• Document date
• Total taxable value
• Total tax amount should total up to the sum of IGST, CGST, SGST and CESS, if any
• Tax amount head wise

Further, the matching may result in documents missing in either of the data. If there are invoices or debit notes missing in GSTR-2B when compared to the purchase register, the taxpayer must inform his suppliers about the same and get the document uploaded in the next GSTR-1 return they are filing. The reconciliation between GSTR-2B and the purchase register must be carried out more frequently and suitably from the 14th of the month subsequent to the tax period.

A few of the reasons for mismatches between GSTR-2B and purchase books can be as follows:

• Period of reporting the invoices by the supplier is different from the period of accounting in books by the buyer.
• Subsequent issue of debit or credit notes by supplier gone unaccounted for by the buyer.
• Amendments to filed GSTR-1 in subsequent period’s GSTR-1 by the suppliers. For instance, differences in sales details between the books of accounts and GSTR-1 is auto-populated from the e-invoicing system. Thus, the supplier amends returns later on.

How does Clear GST (formerly, ClearTax GST) help in GSTR-2B vs GSTR-3B vs Purchase books matching?

Clear GST, a cloud-based software, provides an advanced reconciliation tool to quickly compare GSTR 2B with the purchase data, including the bill of entry. 

Clear GST (formerly, ClearTax GST) offerings for reconciliation of purchase data with GSTR-2B and much more are as follows:

• A single-click import of the purchase data from Tally or any other ERP software
• Inbuilt validations for accurate upload of the purchase data without errors
• Optimised input tax credit by downloading multi-month GSTR-2B report
• Advanced filters and excel report summary to take actions and maximise ITC claims
• Supplier-level invoice mismatches can be identified for taking corrective actions.
• Instant comparison report for GSTR-2B versus GSTR-3B available on tap
• Enjoy 100% optimised ITC claims with ClearTax ITC optimisation calculator
• Get eligible ITC effortlessly as per Section 16(2)(aa) and Rule 36(4) with a single click
• Auto-prepare monthly/quarterly GSTR-3B accurately from the filed GSTR-1 and downloaded GSTR-2B
• Our inbuilt vendor communication tool to interact with clients and suppliers helps in faster work.