The High Court of Jharkhand directed the joint commissioner (appeals) to dispose of the appeal under Goods and Service Tax (GST) which was kept dormant by the department within eight weeks.
M/s. Rimjhim Ispat Limited, the petitioner challenged how an Officer of the State Taxes could carry out the proceedings under Section 129(1) and (3) of the GST Act, that too when he is not the proper Officer under the Central Goods & Services Tax Act, 2017, for an inter-state transaction, necessarily falling under the ambit of Integrated Goods & Services Tax Act, 2017, in view of Section 20 of the said Act.
The petitioner has further prayed for quashing and setting aside the order dated 15.02.2021 passed by the Proper Officer, whereby and where under, tax and penalty to the tune of Rs. 19,61,100/- has been imposed on the ground that the E-way Bill had lost its validity without any finding of evasion of tax.
The petitioner had raised an invoice against the order of stainless steel rod weighing 30.180 MT by GEE Limited, Howrah which was dispatched by the consignor on the same date via Road Transport with a valid E-way bill and other required documents.
On 04.02.2021 itself an E-way bill for outward supply was generated and issued which was valid from 04.02.2021 till 10.02.2021. On the vehicle entering the boundary of the State of Jharkhand at Dhanbad, it was inspected by Officers and the E-way bill was found to have expired on 10.02.2021 after which the statement of the driver of the truck was recorded in Form GST MOV-01 the vehicle along with the goods was directed to be stationed at Barwadda Police Station by the issuance of Form GST MOV-02.
Since the E-way bill had expired an order of detention in Form GST MOV-06 and a notice in Form GST MOV-07 were issued wherein the petitioner company was directed to show cause as to why the proposed tax and penalty to the tune of Rs. 19,61,100/- be not imposed.
Finally, an order was passed on 15.02.2021 wherein the tax and penalty upon the petitioner company were imposed to the tune of Rs. 19,61,100/-. Aggrieved by the order dated 15.02.2021, the petitioner had filed an appeal manually and he was subsequently communicated by the appellate authority to file an online appeal.
A two-judge member comprising Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Justice Deepak Roshan observed that since the petitioner has an alternative remedy of an appeal which he has already availed of in terms of Section 107 of the Jharkhand Goods and Services Tax Act, by filing the same manually which is being kept dormant by the Department.
The Jharkhand High Court disposed of the writ application with a direction to the Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Dhanbad Division, Dhanbad to dispose of the appeal preferred by the petitioner manually expeditiously and preferably within a period of eight.
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