As per the current provisions of GST, the recipient can take input tax credit only if the invoice issued by the supplier is reflecting in GSTR – 2A with a provision of claiming 10% extra. Matching started for availing input tax credit from Oct 2019. One of the major challenges faced by the taxpayers is GSTR – 2A being dynamic, the values get changed for the respective months when the supplier files the returns for the previous months. The operational challenge, the taxpayer has to verify all the previous returns for availing the input tax credit.

To address these challenges, the GSTN has released a new Report called GSTR – 2B. Features of GSTR - 2B

• It is a static report
• Will be updated based on the filing of GSTR – 1, GSTR – 5 & GSTR – 6
• The returns filed by the taxpayers from 00.00 hours of 11^th of the month to 23.59 hours of next month 12^th.
• It has all the details of the Tax Invoice, Debit / Credit Notes, ISD Invoices, Amendments to Tax Invoice, Debit/Credit Notes, Amendments to ISD invoices along with amendments to import documents
• The return is integrated with the ICEGATE portal, and users can see the input tax credit on the Bill of Entries filed during the period.  
• Inward supplies from SEZ and SEZ Developers are also shown

GSTR – 2B is completely a user-friendly report, and the same can be accessed online or downloaded as Excel or PDF files.

Accessing online is very user friendly; the user can check all the invoices by supplier or invoice level and also custom view. In the custom view, the user can decide which fields he can see the same on screen, and also, a search facility is available.

How to Access -  All the registered taxpayers filing GSTR – 1 monthly or quarterly can access the same from the Returns Dashboard.

When the user clicks on the View, he will be taken this screen

On the first screen, it will be shown in the Summary view; the eligible ITC will be seen in the first tab, and in the second tab, the ineligible input tax credit will be shown.

To access the details at the document level, the user can click on “All Tables.”

The user can see the same at document type and can download the same in excel

                                  

Now the question comes, as a taxpayer, should I use GSTR – 2B or GSTR – 2A for filing of the GSTR – 3B?.

The taxpayers, while filing the GSTR – 3B, matching can be done using the GSTR – 2B as it is a static report, and all the information of the returns filed by the taxpayers is reflected in this report. If required, the user can cross-check the same in GSTR – 2A till the time they gain confidence.