Annai Angammal Arakkattalai (Pre Mahal) Vs Joint Commissioner or GST (Appeals) (Madras High Court)
Madras High Court held that obtaining GST registration and payment of tax after inspection cannot be said to be voluntary conduct of the assessee. The same amounts to deliberate attempt to evade payment of tax by non-registration and hence provisions of section 74 of the CGST Act rightly invoked.
Facts- The petitioner is the charitable trust having registered office at Karur. Under the said trust petitioner runs a marriage hall under the name and style of M/s.Prem Mahal at Kovai Road. The petitioner registered as service provider under CGST Act w.e.f. 14.02.2020.
The CGST department preventive unit visited marriage hall on 23.01.2020 and asked to handover entire accounts and records. Further, on summon the petitioner submitted ITR, Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss account upto 31.03.2019 along with bank statement of the Trust and Trustees. Moreover, the petitioner specifically stated that some amounts are reimbursable to the persons concerned.
On perusal of the documents the GST authority of Preventive Unit arrived at a receipt of Rs.3,86,36,410/- for the marriage hall from July, 2017 to January, 2020. In the meanwhile, the petitioner paid a sum of Rs. 58,93,702/- as GST liability and a sum of Rs.8.84,056/- as penalty liability under cum-tax basis method applying Rule 35 of CGST Rules.
