The Rajasthan High Court held that benefit of the Sabka Vishwas Legacy Dispute Resolution scheme can avail on investigation or audit initiated on or before June 30 of 2019.
The petitioner-firm involved in construction activities bearing Service Tax Registration filed an online application for availing the benefit of SVLDRS (Sabka Vishwas) (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme 2019 (the Scheme of 2019) before the authority on 31.12.2019.
The respondents-authorities also issued the discharge certificate or full and final settlement tax dues under Section 127 of the Finance (No.2) Act of 2019 read with Rule 9 of the Scheme of 2019.
The petitioner received show cause notice dated 12.10.2020 wherein, it was mentioned that the petitioner had filed application under the category of ‘Voluntary Disclosure’ for relaxation of applicable interest and penalty in respect of declared service pertaining to the period from April 2016 to June 2017 for which departmental audit had already been initiated, but remained pending.
It was further stated that in the case of ‘Voluntary Disclosure’ where any material particular furnished in the declaration is subsequently found to be false, within a period of one year of issue of the discharge certificate, it shall be presumed as if the declaration was never made and proceedings under the applicable Indirect Tax enactment shall be instituted.
The authority observed that the declarations filed by the petitioner under the category of ‘Voluntary Disclosure’ have been filed wrongly and declarations are not eligible under SVLDRS-2019 got rejected.
The person making ‘Voluntary Disclosure’ after being subjected to any enquiry or investigation or audit is clearly ineligible to avail of the benefit of the Scheme of 2019 and is ineligible to proceed further under the ‘Voluntary Disclosure’ category.
The acting Chief Justice Mr Manindra Mohan Shrivastava & Mr Justice Madan Gopal Vyas declined to interfere with the decision of the respondents in rejecting the petitioner’s declaration holding ineligible to avail of the benefit of the scheme 2019.
Mr Jagat Tatia appeared for the petitioner and Mr Rajvendra Saraswat & Mr Vipul Singhvi appeared for the respondent.
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