Tvl. Bhawar Life Style Vs State Tax Officer/Commercial Tax Officer (Madras High Court)
Madras High Court directed petitioner to deposit 25% of the disputed taxes for granting an opportunity of being heard since petitioner failed to comply with the notice uploaded on GST portal. Thus, writ allowed.
Facts- The petitioner is running a retail business of telephone sets and other wireless networks products. The petitioner is registered under the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017. The petitioner has filed its returns and paid appropriate taxes for the relevant period. While so, there was an inspection of the business place of the petitioner u/s. 67 of the TNGST Act. During the course of such inspection and on verification of tax returns, statements, and records, various defects were noticed.
Subsequently, a notice in Form DRC-01A dated 13.12.2023 and a show cause notice in Form DRC-01 dated 10.04.2024 were issued to the petitioner through GST portal, followed by three reminder notices dated 15.05.2024, 23.05.2024 & 27.05.2024 along with an opportunity of personal hearing. However, the petitioner had neither filed its reply nor availed an opportunity of personal hearing. Hence, impugned order came to be passed by the respondent, confirming the proposals.
Conclusion- Held that the notices and orders were uploaded under the “view additional notices and orders” tab on the GST Portal, thereby, the petitioner was unaware of the initiated proceedings and thus unable to participate in the adjudication proceedings. Thus, the impugned order dated 25.06.2024 is set aside. The petitioner shall deposit 25% of the disputed taxes as admitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner and the respondent, within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
