Mundeth Ply Boards Vs State Tax Officer (Kerala High Court)
Summary: The petitioner was a registered taxable person under the CGST/KSGST Act, 2017, having migrated from the KVAT regime upon implementation of GST from 01.07.2017. The petitioner stopped business in September 2017 and stated that it could not cancel its registration at that time because of the prohibition contained in the proviso to Rule 20 of the CGST Rules, as it then existed.
In November 2017, the petitioner leased the premises to another person. That person subsequently obtained GST registration at the same premises and was regularly filing returns and paying tax. The petitioner challenged a series of best judgment assessment orders passed under Section 62 of the CGST Act for the period from February 2018 to February 2019.
The petitioner contended that the statutory notices required before making an assessment under Section 62 had not been served. It relied upon a screenshot of its GST dashboard, which did not show issuance of the notices and contained only details of the summary orders. The petitioner argued that, without service of the statutory notices, it was deprived of the opportunity contemplated under the provision to furnish the required returns.
The Revenue opposed the petition, submitting that although cancellation of registration had been prohibited for the relevant period, the petitioner was required to file returns. It was also pointed out that the assessments related to a period after expiry of one year from registration and that the petitioner’s registration had subsequently been cancelled suo motu for non-filing of returns.
