MetiqA DRC-01B intimation lands without warning: no officer visits, no show-cause notice, just a system-generated message on the GST portal saying that the tax liability you declared in GSTR-1 is higher than the tax you actually paid through GSTR-3B for the same period — and asking you to explain or pay the difference.
For many firms this is the first notice a client ever forwards with the question: "Sir, what is this?" This guide explains what DRC-01B is, why it gets triggered, and the response discipline that keeps a small mismatch from becoming a large problem.
What DRC-01B actually is
DRC-01B is an intimation of difference — the GST portal compares two numbers you filed yourself:
- The total liability reported in GSTR-1 (your outward supplies, invoice by invoice), and
- The liability discharged in GSTR-3B (the summary return through which you pay).
If the GSTR-1 liability exceeds the GSTR-3B liability beyond the portal's threshold, the system raises DRC-01B for the difference. It is important to understand what it is not:
- It is not a demand. No officer has examined your books or decided that you owe the amount.
- It is not an assessment. It is an automated comparison of your own two returns.
- It is not ignorable. The intimation asks for a response, and an unanswered difference does not quietly disappear — it stays on record and can hold up subsequent return filing and escalate into recovery proceedings.
Think of it as the department's software asking a direct question: "Your two returns disagree. Which one is right?"
Why it gets triggered
In practice, most DRC-01B intimations come from timing and process gaps rather than from any attempt to pay less tax:
- GSTR-3B figures consolidated differently. The team pays tax on a summary computed in the books, while GSTR-1 carries the invoice-level detail. Small rounding or classification differences accumulate into a visible gap.
- Amendments in a later period. An invoice is corrected or a credit note is issued in a subsequent month's GSTR-1, but the corresponding adjustment in GSTR-3B is missed, double-counted, or taken in a different period.
- GSTR-1 filed from the billing system, GSTR-3B filed from the ledger. Two sources of truth quietly diverge — a sale recorded in one and deferred in the other.
- A genuine short payment. Sometimes the difference is real: liability was declared but not fully paid. The response in that case is different, and it is better found by you than by the department.
The pattern matters: DRC-01B is usually a reconciliation failure, not a fraud signal. But the portal cannot tell the difference — your response has to.
What the notice asks you to do
The intimation gives you two ways to close the difference:
- Pay the difference — if the liability is genuinely unpaid, pay it through DRC-03 and link the payment to the intimation on the portal.
- Explain the difference — if the liability was declared but has already been discharged, or the GSTR-1 figure is the one that needs correction, submit your explanation on the portal itself, with the reconciliation that supports it.
Two disciplines matter more than anything else:
- Respond within the window the intimation specifies. The response period on a DRC-01B is short — counted in days, not weeks. Read the date on the notice itself, diarise it, and treat it as hard.
- Do not pay blindly, and do not explain vaguely. Paying a difference that was actually a timing gap teaches the system nothing and leaves your returns still disagreeing. Explaining "difference is due to reconciliation" without the working invites the next notice. Attach the reconciliation: period-wise GSTR-1 liability, GSTR-3B liability, the items that bridge the two, and where each bridging item was settled.
A response workflow that works
For firms handling these across many clients, a fixed sequence keeps it clean:
- Pull both returns for the period — GSTR-1 as filed and GSTR-3B as filed, not the books.
- Reconcile line by line until the difference is explained to the last rupee: amendments, credit notes, advances, period mismatches.
- Classify the difference — unpaid liability (pay via DRC-03) or an already-settled/timing difference (explain with the working).
- File the response on the portal and save the acknowledgement.
- Record it against the client — the notice, the response, and the outcome — so the next period's team is not reconstructing it from memory.
In Metiq that record lives on the client's own page, next to the filings it relates to, with the response date on the same calendar — and every plan includes it, so a two-partner firm keeps the same notice discipline as a twenty-person one.
The firms that struggle with DRC-01B are rarely the ones that owe tax. They are the ones that cannot reconstruct, two months later, why two returns they filed disagreed.
FAQ
Is DRC-01B a show-cause notice?
No. It is an automated intimation of a difference between your own GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B. It becomes a problem only if it is left unanswered or the difference is real and unpaid.
The difference shown is wrong. What should I do?
Respond with the explanation on the portal, supported by your reconciliation. If GSTR-1 itself needs correction, note that amendments flow through a subsequent period's GSTR-1 — say so in the explanation and make the amendment in the next filing.
Should I just pay the amount to be safe?
Only if the reconciliation shows the tax is genuinely unpaid. Paying a timing difference does not reconcile your returns, and the mismatch can resurface. Reconcile first; the right response is usually obvious once the working is done.
What happens if I ignore it?
The difference remains outstanding on the portal's record. Unresolved differences can obstruct subsequent filing and move the matter toward demand and recovery — a much longer and more expensive conversation than the reply itself.
How do I prevent it next period?
File GSTR-3B from the GSTR-1 numbers, not parallel to them. A monthly one-page reconciliation — GSTR-1 liability to GSTR-3B liability, differences itemised — makes a DRC-01B either impossible or answerable in minutes.
Metiq tracks GST notices like DRC-01B against each client, with the response deadline on the same calendar as the filings — so an intimation is answered in days, not discovered in months.
General information only — not professional advice.