Shalu Cabs Vs Deputy State Tax Officer (Madras High Court)
Madras High Court has directed a taxpayer challenging an ex-parte Goods and Services Tax (GST) assessment order to pursue the statutory appeal remedy, acknowledging the petitioner’s claim that lack of awareness about the proceedings was due to their part-time accountant’s exclusive access to the GST portal credentials and failure to relay communications.
The case, filed by Shalu Cabs against the Deputy State Tax Officer, challenged an assessment order dated August 27, 2024, for the assessment year 2019-2020, which was passed without the petitioner’s participation.
The petitioner contended before the court that due to limited accounting knowledge, they had engaged a part-time accountant to manage their GST compliance, including filing monthly returns (GSTR-3B) and making payments, which were reportedly done on time. The petitioner stated they had provided all necessary transaction details and instructed the accountant to file GSTR-1 returns as well. Crucially, the petitioner claimed that since they relied entirely on the accountant for GST matters, all communications, including show cause notices and personal hearing notices, were sent to an email address managed by the accountant. Furthermore, the User ID and password for the GST portal were known only to the accountant, giving them exclusive access. This arrangement, according to the petitioner, resulted in them remaining uninformed about the assessment proceedings, leading to the issuance of the ex-parte impugned order.
