Gayathri Enterprise Vs Joint Commissioner (Telangana High Court)
The Telangana High Court disposed of the writ petition challenging the show cause notice dated 24.10.2024, the order-in-original dated 02.01.2025, the summary of the order in Form GST DRC-07 of the same date, and the order-in-appeal dated 31.12.2025 relating to the tax period 2020-21.
The adjudicating authority had confirmed a demand of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) of ₹1,06,40,912 along with applicable interest under Section 50 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and imposed an equivalent penalty under Section 74 read with Section 122(2)(b) of the CGST Act. The demand was raised on the ground that the petitioner had not complied with the conditions prescribed under Notification No.41/2017-IGST (Rate) dated 23.10.2017 for availing the benefit under the notification.
During the appellate proceedings, the petitioner was permitted to produce documents to establish that the goods had been exported and that the notification conditions had been fulfilled. The petitioner submitted recipient details, bills of lading and shipping bill numbers with dates, purchase orders, copies of supplier invoices and 58 Export General Manifests through letters dated 09.05.2025 and 30.05.2025.
Before the High Court, the petitioner contended that the appellate authority had failed to consider both the documents produced during the appeal proceedings and the grounds raised in the appeal. The petitioner also challenged the invocation of Section 74 of the CGST Act, contending that there was no fraud, wilful misstatement or suppression of facts to evade tax. It was further submitted that, under Condition No.9 of Notification No.41/2017-IGST (Rate), the burden of providing the relevant documents rested upon the registered recipient. According to the petitioner, the order-in-original and the order-in-appeal suffered from non-application of mind and the matter should therefore be remanded for fresh consideration.
