BLA Infrastructure Private Limited Vs State of Jharkhand (Jharkhand High Court)
Jharkhand High Court held that rejection of refund of statutory pre-deposit merely because refund application was filed beyond section 54 of the Income Tax Act not justified as refund of pre-deposit is vested right of an assessee.
Facts- The petitioner is a registered dealer under the Goods & Services Tax Act and is carrying out business of loading, unloading of Coal and transportation of coal loaded into tipper. In the month of January 2021, alleging mismatch in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the month of September 2019, Show Cause Notice u/s. 74 of the JGST Act, 2017 was issued and ex- parte order was passed vide order dated 31.08.2021, imposing liability of Rs. 16,90,442/-, which inter alia included tax, interest and penalty.
Read SC Judgment: Pre-Deposit Refund to Follow Appellate Sections, Not General Refund Clause: SC
Aggrieved thereof, the petitioner preferred an appeal within time making a statutory pre-deposit of the 10% of the disputed tax amount u/s. 107(6)(b) of the Act, in order to maintain the appeal. The appeal of the petitioner was allowed on 09.02.2022 and Form GST APL-04 dated 10.02.2022 was issued.
Thus, the petitioner made an application for refund of the pre-deposit amount on 11.09.2024, which by virtue of a Deficiency Memo dated 11.2024 was held to be beyond the period prescribed u/s. 54(1) of the Goods & Services Tax Act and hence, aggrieved thereof, the petitioner is before this Court.
