The Delhi High Court observed that the Assessing Authority is duly empowered to call for records and to verify Input Tax Credit (ITC) as claimed under Delhi Value Added Tax Act, 2004 (DVAT Act).
The appellant, M/s Chitra Hardware has filed the present appeal impugning the order (‘impugned order’) passed by the Appellate Tribunal for Delhi Value Added Tax dismissing the appellant’s appeal against an order passed by the Objection Hearing Authority (‘OHA’).
In terms of the said order, the OHA had rejected the appellant’s objection under Section 74 of the Delhi Value Added Tax Act, 2004 (‘DVAT Act’) against the default assessment of tax framed by the Assessing Authority, under Section 32 of the DVAT Act, for the financial year 2013-14.
The Assessing Authority rejected the appellant’s claim for refund, which arose in respect of its input tax credit (‘ITC’), on the ground that the appellant had failed to establish the genuineness of the ITC on the basis of any documentary evidence.
The counsel for the appellant submits that the appellant was not required to produce any such material as the ITC could be verified from the returns and the forms filed online including the returns filed by the dealers from whom the appellant had purchased goods and that the order passed by the Assessing Authority is mala fide as it was passed on the last date prior to the bar of limitation.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan observed that “It would not be open for the appellant now to raise any new challenge to the order passed by the Assessing Authority including on the ground that it had not been signed. This question does not arise from the impugned order passed by the Tribunal. The appellant has all along proceeded on the basis that the said order was passed by the Assessing Authority and had assailed the same on merits, which was considered by the OHA and by the learned Tribunal.”
“It is well-settled that in case mala fides are alleged, the same has to be specifically pleaded with full particulars. The scope of the appeal, in the present case, is limited to examining the substantial questions of law that arise in the matter” the Court said.
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