Section 16(2)(aa)
Section 16(2)(aa) of the CGST Act allows ITC only where the supplier has reported the invoice and it is communicated to the recipient in GSTR-2B.
Section 16(2)(aa) is the clause that welds ITC to GSTR-2B. Live since 1 January 2022, it says a recipient can claim credit only if the supplier has furnished the invoice in GSTR-1 and it is reflected in the recipient's GSTR-2B. No 2B entry, no credit — self-invoicing on your books is not enough.
Before this clause, taxpayers could claim ITC from their own invoice copies. Section 16(2)(aa) ended that: the supplier must have filed the invoice and it must reach your GSTR-2B. It is the legal reason 2B reconciliation is now compulsory rather than good practice, and it works together with the Invoice Management System that shapes what 2B contains.
The clause is one of the cumulative conditions in Section 16(2) — invoice held, supply received, tax paid by supplier, return filed, and reflected in 2B. All must hold together. It also feeds directly into the DRC-01C mismatch check, since any 3B claim beyond 2B is, by definition, a 16(2)(aa) exposure. The clause applies invoice by invoice, so even a single credit taken ahead of its 2B appearance is a distinct exposure, however small.
The Recoup angle: Recoup blocks any claim that lacks a matching 2B line, so every credit you file satisfies 16(2)(aa) by construction.