Supplier invoice rejected or pending in IMS: what it means for your input tax credit

Your accounts team says a supplier's invoice is "rejected" in IMS. Or an invoice you need is sitting at "pending". Or you are the supplier and a customer has rejected your invoice. Either way, one question matters: does the input tax credit (ITC) on that invoice still reach GSTR-3B, and what do you do about it?

This article separates two things. The first is the law, which is on the statute book: sections 16 and 38 of the CGST Act, 2017 and rule 60 of the CGST Rules, 2017. The second is how the GST portal's Invoice Management System (IMS) behaves. For that second part, this article relies on GSTN advisories as relayed in the monthly GST newsletters of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). That is a secondary source, not the advisory itself and not a notification. Portal screens, buttons and time limits change often, so confirm every IMS point on the GST portal before you act on it.

What the law says about the ITC statement

Section 38(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 says that the details of outward supplies furnished by registered persons under section 37(1), and "a statement containing the details of input tax credit", "shall be made available electronically to the recipients of such supplies", in such form and manner, within such time and subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed.

The words "a statement" are recent. Until 30 September 2025 the section said "an auto-generated statement". The Finance Act, 2025, notified through Notification No. 16/2025-Central Tax dated 17.09.2025, substituted the words with effect from 1 October 2025 (s.38(1), CGST Act 2017, as amended).

Section 38(2), as amended at the same time, says the statement consists of details of inward supplies on which credit may be available to the recipient, and details of supplies on which credit cannot be availed, wholly or partly, including where the supplier falls within the categories listed in clause (b) (for example, a supplier who has defaulted in payment of tax for the prescribed period). It also covers such other details as may be prescribed.

The statement is Form GSTR-2B. Rule 60(7) of the CGST Rules, 2017 says that an auto-generated statement containing the details of input tax credit "shall be made available to the registered person in FORM GSTR-2B, for every month", electronically through the common portal.

Why the ITC conditions matter here

Section 16(2) of the CGST Act, 2017 begins with a prohibition: no registered person is entitled to the credit of any input tax on a supply to him unless certain conditions are met. Three of them are the ones people usually mean when they talk about IMS:

• You are in possession of a tax invoice or debit note issued by a supplier registered under the Act, or other prescribed tax paying documents (s.16(2)(a)).
• The details of that invoice or debit note have been furnished by the supplier in the statement of outward supplies, and have been communicated to you in the manner specified under section 37 (s.16(2)(aa)).
• The details of ITC in respect of the supply, communicated to you under section 38, have not been restricted (s.16(2)(ba)).

Section 16(2) has further conditions (receipt of the goods or services, payment of the tax to the Government, and filing of the return under section 39). The time limit for taking credit is also in section 16. This article does not cover them. Check them for each invoice.

None of these clauses mentions IMS. IMS is a portal facility, and what it does to a particular invoice is a matter of portal behaviour, which is why the rest of this article attributes each point to its source.

What IMS does, as reported

The ICSI GST Newsletter for November 2025 reports a GSTN advisory dated 8 October 2025 on IMS. As reported, the advisory says:

• GSTR-2B continues to be generated on the 14th of every month, without manual action by the taxpayer.
• ITC continues to auto-populate from GSTR-2B to GSTR-3B without manual intervention.
• Taxpayers keep the ability to take actions in IMS after GSTR-2B is generated and up to the filing of GSTR-3B. In that case GSTR-2B can be regenerated if necessary.

So, according to GSTN's advisory as reported by ICSI, IMS is where a recipient acts on inward records, and those actions can feed into a regenerated GSTR-2B. The ITC flow from GSTR-2B to GSTR-3B is described as unchanged. Confirm on the GST portal how this works for your return period.

What "rejected" means

When you reject a record in IMS, you tell the portal and your supplier that you do not accept it. What exactly happens to your GSTR-2B figures is something to confirm on the portal for your month. The advisory material on disk does not set it out in statutory terms.

What the newsletters do report:

• The October 2025 ICSI GST Newsletter, reporting a GSTN advisory, says taxpayers can save remarks while taking a reject or pending action on a record. It describes this as an optional facility and says it "will be rolled out shortly". Such remarks, per the advisory, are visible in GSTR-2B for future reference and to suppliers in the Outward Supplies view dashboard, "to take corrective measures".
• The July 2025 ICSI GST Newsletter, reporting a GSTN advisory, says that if a recipient rejects a credit note, the supplier's liability first increases. When the supplier furnishes the same credit note again, the liability is adjusted down by the same value, so the net effect happens once.

What "pending" means, and what the list says

The October 2025 newsletter, reporting the GSTN advisory, says taxpayers can keep specified records pending for a limited time: one tax period for a monthly taxpayer, and one tax period (the quarter) for a quarterly taxpayer. The specified records it lists are:

• Credit notes, or an upward amendment of a credit note.
• A downward amendment of a credit note, where the original credit note was rejected.
• A downward amendment of an invoice or debit note, only where the original invoice was already accepted and GSTR-3B has been filed.
• A downward amendment of an ECO-document, only where the original was accepted and GSTR-3B has been filed.

A fresh supplier invoice is not in that list as reported. If you were planning to hold a new invoice at "pending" while you check it with the supplier, do not rely on this article for whether the portal lets you. The list describes the "specified records" in that advisory, a later advisory may have changed it, and the portal screen is the authority. Confirm on the GST portal what actions are open for the record in front of you.

The same advisory says the due date for keeping a record pending is calculated from the date or tax period in which the supplier communicated the document. The changes were to take effect from the October 2025 tax period and, per the advisory, apply only to records filed by suppliers after the production rollout of the changes.

For credit notes there is one more feature. The advisory says that where the recipient has not availed ITC on the document, no reversal is warranted, and where ITC was availed only in part, the reversal is limited to that extent. IMS therefore offers a facility to declare the amount of ITC actually availed and required to be reversed, for the specified records.

An invoice rejected by mistake: the reported route

The July 2025 ICSI GST Newsletter, reporting a GSTN advisory, covers the case where an invoice, debit note or ECO-document was rejected by mistake and GSTR-3B for the same tax period has already been filed. As reported:

• The recipient asks the supplier to report the same record, without any changes, in GSTR-1A of the same return period, or in the amendment table of a subsequent GSTR-1 or IFF (the Invoice Furnishing Facility).
• The recipient accepts the amended record in IMS and recomputes GSTR-2B.
• The recipient can claim the ITC for the re-furnished document only in the GSTR-2B of the concerned tax period, and receives the full ITC of the amended value, since the original record was rejected.

For the supplier, the advisory says that the supplier can re-submit the same record without changes in GSTR-1A or the amendment table "within the specified time limit". The amendment table accounts only for delta values, so, as the advisory puts it, "the differential liability increase will be zero". The newsletter does not state the time limit. Check it on the portal.

If a credit note was wrongly rejected, the steps mirror this. The recipient asks the supplier to furnish the same credit note unchanged in GSTR-1A or the amendment table, and accepts it in IMS. The recipient's ITC is then reduced by the complete amended value, which matches the original credit note.

Time limits

No fixed number of days for acting in IMS appears in the material this article relies on. What is reported is this:

• GSTR-2B is generated on the 14th of each month.
• IMS actions can be taken after that date and up to the filing of GSTR-3B, with GSTR-2B regenerated if necessary (advisory of 8 October 2025, as reported by ICSI).
• Pending status is limited to one tax period.

For anything beyond this, including the time limit on the supplier's re-furnishing and the time limit for taking credit on the invoice, check the GST portal and section 16 before you plan around it.

Cautions

• Do not reject an invoice only because you have not yet matched it to your purchase order. A rejection is visible to the supplier, and the remarks you save can be seen in their dashboard.
• Do not assume that doing nothing on an invoice is safe. This article has not found a rule on disk that says how an invoice you never act on is treated. Review the dashboard before you file GSTR-3B and confirm on the portal how unactioned records are handled for your month.
• Do not take credit on an invoice you have rejected unless the record has been put right by the supplier through the route above, and the section 16(2) conditions are met for it.
• Do not treat any screenshot or note about IMS as current. The July 2025 and October 2025 advisories reported by ICSI show the facility being revised more than once.

If you are the supplier

Watch the Outward Supplies view for rejections and remarks. If a customer rejected a correct invoice, the reported route is to re-submit the same record, with no change, in GSTR-1A of the same period or in the amendment table of a later GSTR-1 or IFF, within the time limit the portal allows.

The release notes of the IMS Offline Utility (Release 2.0) record that it added a "Source Return Filing date" column and a "Filing frequency of the Supplier" column. The same notes say records modified by the supplier after saving but before filing the return are highlighted in yellow. That can help when you reconcile what customers see against what you filed.

What to do now

• Next step: open the IMS dashboard for the month. List every rejected or pending record, and mark which were deliberate. The statement is made available to you under s.38(1) CGST Act 2017 and rule 60(7) of the CGST Rules, 2017; the action on each record is yours.
• Deadline: act before you file GSTR-3B for the month. The advisory of 8 October 2025, as reported by ICSI, says IMS actions can be taken up to the filing of GSTR-3B. A wrong rejection after that needs the GSTR-1A or amendment-table route reported in the July 2025 newsletter.
• Consequence: your ITC depends on the conditions in s.16(2) of the CGST Act, 2017, including that the supplier's details have been communicated to you (clause (aa)) and that the ITC details communicated under section 38 have not been restricted (clause (ba)). Confirm the position of each invoice on the portal and check the time limit for taking credit.

Have a CA review your facts before you act or file.

Frequently asked questions

What is GSTR-2B in law?
Rule 60(7) of the CGST Rules, 2017 describes it as the auto-generated statement containing the details of input tax credit, made available to the registered person every month through the common portal. Section 38(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 is the statutory basis for the statement.

Does IMS change how ITC reaches GSTR-3B?
According to the GSTN advisory of 8 October 2025 as reported by ICSI, no. ITC continues to auto-populate from GSTR-2B to GSTR-3B. Confirm on the portal.

Can I keep an ordinary supplier invoice pending?
The October 2025 advisory, as reported by ICSI, lists the specified records that can be kept pending, and a fresh invoice is not among them. That list may have changed. Confirm on the portal what is open for the record you hold.

I rejected an invoice by mistake after filing GSTR-3B. Is the credit gone?
The July 2025 advisory, as reported by ICSI, gives a route: the supplier re-furnishes the same record unchanged in GSTR-1A or the amendment table, you accept it in IMS and recompute GSTR-2B, and you claim the credit through the GSTR-2B of the concerned period. Confirm the time limits on the portal.

Does the supplier pay more tax if I wrongly reject?
For an invoice, the advisory as reported says the differential liability increase is zero once the supplier re-furnishes it unchanged, because the amendment table takes only the delta. For a credit note, the supplier's liability first rises and then adjusts down when it is re-furnished.

What if I never open IMS?
This article does not state how unactioned records are treated, because the material on file does not set it out as a rule. Check the dashboard and the portal's current guidance for your return period before you file GSTR-3B.

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See Also

• Refund of ITC stuck because we export: how to claim it
• Gifts to employees and free samples: when GST applies and when the credit is lost
• Sent goods for job work? The one-year rule and ITC-04