Wrong address and GSTIN mentioned on invoices - ITC available or not?

As we know that under GST law the supplier of goods or services charge the GST on the invoice issued to the recipient and deposit the said GST amount to the government (except in case of RCM). Now, the recipient has to take the ITC of said GST amount, for which the recipient has to comply with the conditions of section 16 & 17 of CGST Act 2017. One of the condition for claiming the ITC is that the recipient should have a tax invoice. However, there can be a situation where the supplier has mentioned the wrong address of the recipient or has mentioned wrong GSTIN of the recipient in the tax invoice issued by them. In that situation a question arises whether the recipient would be eligible to claim the ITC on the basis of an invoice in which his address is not correctly mentioned?.

Section 16(2)(a) of CGST Act 2017 clearly states that no registered person shall be entitled to the credit of any input tax in respect of any supply of goods or services or both to him unless he is in the possession of a tax invoice or debit note issued by a supplier registered under this Act, or such other tax paying documents as may be prescribed. Thus from the above it is clear that the recipient must have the tax invoice or debit note for claiming the ITC.

When the tax invoice is issued by the supplier by mentioning the incorrect address or wrong GSTIN of the recipient, then in such situation the ITC of the recipient should not be denied subject to the condition that the other conditions for taking the ITC are duly fulfilled, like;

(i) The supplier has duly furnished their GSTR-1 and reported such invoice in GSTR-1.
(ii) The recipient has received such goods or services.
(iii) The supplier has also filed their GSTR-3B and deposited the tax to the government in respect of such invoice.
(iv) The payment in respect of said invoice has been made to the supplier within 180 days from the date of invoice.
(v) The ITC in respect of such invoice is not blocked under section 17(5) of CGST Act 2017.

The same was also clarified in the para 3(d) of the Circular No. 183/15/2022-GST that where the supplier has filed GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B for a tax period, but he has declared the supply with wrong GSTIN of the recipient in GSTR-1, in such cases, the difference in ITC claimed by the registered person in his return in GSTR-3B and that available in GSTR-2A may be handled by following the procedure provided in para 4 of the said circular, which states that the proper officer shall first seek the details from the registered person regarding all the invoices on which ITC has been availed by the registered person in his GSTR 3B but which are not reflecting in his GSTR 2A. He shall then ascertain fulfillment of the following conditions of Section 16 of CGST Act in respect of the ITC availed on such invoices by the said registered person:

Further, it was clarified in the said circular that the proper officer of the actual recipient shall intimate the concerned jurisdictional tax authority of the registered person whose GSTIN has been mentioned wrongly, that ITC on those transactions is required to be disallowed, if claimed by such recipient. However, allowance of ITC to the actual recipient shall not depend on the completion of the action by the tax authority of such registered person, whose GSTIN has been mentioned wrongly, and such action will be pursued as an independent action.

In the case of B Braun Medical India (P.) Ltd. vs. Union of India [2025(03)LCX0321], Hon'ble Delhi High Court set aside the order of rejecting the ITC which was issued solely on the ground that the GST number of the petitioner was wrongly mentioned on the invoice. The said case is summarised as follow;

The case of the Petitioner was that he purchased the products from M/s. Ahlcon Parenterals (India) Limited on the basis of various purchase orders. The invoices for the said products were raised by Ahlcon on the Petitioner, however, the said invoices inadvertently reflected the Bombay address and Bombay GSTIN of the Petitioner, instead of the Delhi GSTIN number.  A demand order was issued against the petitioner alleging the excess claim of input tax credit (ITC) due to an inadvertent error in the invoices issued by the supplier.

The Petitioner had relied upon the purchase orders and invoices and submitted that the incorrect reflection of Petitioner's Bombay GSTIN on the invoices was merely an error by the supplier. Accordingly, the petitioner has filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court.

The High Court observed that the Petitioner’s name was correctly mentioned in the invoices, however, the wrong GST number, i.e., of the Bombay office has been mentioned. The only basis for rejecting the ITC by the department is the mention of the Bombay office GSTIN instead of the Delhi office GSTIN. Accordingly, the high court held that Substantial loss would be caused to the Petitioner if the credit is not granted for such a small error on behalf of the supplier. Therefore, the impugned order of rejecting the ITC was set aside.

Further, in case of  M/s. Shree Krishna Traders vs. State of U.P. and Another [2023(09)LCX0335] the Hon’ble Allahabad High Court has set aside the impugned order in which the ITC was disallowed to the Petitioner due to difference in GSTR-3B and GSTR-2A as his GSTIN was wrongly mentioned by the supplier while filing GSTR-1.

Conclusion: From the above detailed discussion it can be concluded that ITC of the recipient should not be denied due to minor errors of the supplier like mentioning wrong GSTIN or mentioning the wrong address of the recipient, provided that all other conditions for taking the input tax credit are fulfilled.

Disclaimer: The information given in this article is solely for purpose of understanding the law. It is completely based on the interpretation of the author and cannot be constituted as a legal advise, the author of this article and Lawcrux team is not responsible for any legal issues if arises on the basis of the interpretation given above.