In an important order, the Gujarat high court has not only pulled up the government for being unable to provide proper digital services to process Goods & Services Tax for businessmen, but also directed the department to issue showcause notices to defaulting tax payers only in physical form. It also directed that the notices must be dispatched to a dealer through RPAD.
Various dealers whose GST registrations were cancelled after issuance of show-cause notices had approached the HC. The dealers complained that they had failed to file returns because of their ignorance of the law and technical knowhow in 2017. However, they were never given the opportunity to explain their side.
After hearing these cases, the bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Nisha Thakore ordered the state GST department to issue show-cause notices in physical form. The court also ordered the department to pass final orders in physical form only. The court specified that the order should contain all necessary reasons and should be properly sent to dealers through Registered Post with Acknowledge Due (RPAD). “Any lapse, henceforth, shall be viewed very strictly. We are saying so because this court is fed up with unnecessary litigation in this regard,” the bench observed.
To push the administration to remove technical glitches in software, the HC further ordered it to issue notices and final orders to dealers in physical form “until the department is able to develop and upload an appropriate software in the portal which would enable the department to feed all the necessary information and material particulars in the show-cause notice as well as in the final order of cancellation of registration that may be passed”.
The HC’s order came after the state government’s “baffling reply” to the court’s query on why dealers were not conveyed reasons for notice and registration cancellation order. The government submitted that the department is finding it difficult to upload show-cause notices and order of registration cancellation “on account of technical glitches in the portal”.
The high court found GST department’s order of registration cancellation beyond the scope of show-cause notices and quashed them. The HC also told the state tax department to follow the procedure scrupulously because it results in unnecessary litigation.
Source: timesofindia.com
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