11 March 2026
GST rules impose strict time limits for claiming ITC under Section 16 of the CGST Act. ITC must generally be claimed by the due date of filing GSTR-3B for September of the following financial year (or annual return, whichever is earlier), after which it becomes time-barred. For earlier years' RCM demands raised via audit (under Section 65), late payment—often via DRC-03—does not automatically entitle you to ITC in current GSTR-3B tables like 4A(2)/4A(3), as eligibility ties to the original invoice/self-invoice date and payment timing.
Post-audit demands require payment with interest and possibly penalty, typically through DRC-03. While payment creates a potential ITC basis (after cash payment of RCM tax), claiming it now risks rejection as time-barred, especially for years like 2017-18 or older. Self-invoicing should have occurred originally; retrospective claims in current GSTR-3B (e.g., Table 4A(5) for reclaims) are limited to recently reversed ITC, not audit recoveries.