The Kerala High Court dismissed the writ petition by premier auto sales which was filed against the demand of Goods and Service Tax (GST) under the CGST Act due to Non-filing of GSTR 3.
M/S Premier Auto Sales & Service, the petitioner challenged the order passed by the first respondent under the provisions of Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘CGST Act’) and Kerala State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘Kerala SGST Act’) read with Section 20 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘IGST Act’).
Vide the impugned order, the demand of Rs.8,27,93,915/- in respect of the IGST, CGST SGST and Cess, has been confirmed under the provisions of Section 73(1) of the CGST Act and Kerala SGST Act. The penalty of Rs.82,79,392/- has been imposed under Section 73(9) read with Section 73(11) of the CGST Act and Kerala SGST Act read with Section 20 of the IGST Act.
The petitioner, a partnership firm, is a registered dealer under the provisions of the CGST Act and Kerala SGST Act for the supply of “motor cars and other motor vehicles” falling under HSN 8703; “motor vehicles for transport of goods” falling under HSN 8704 and “parts and accessories of vehicles” falling under HSN 8714. The petitioner is an authorised dealer and service centre for Mahindra and Mahindra vehicles.
On intelligence gathered by the officers of CGST, the Commissionerate indicated that the petitioner had not filed statutory GSTR-3B returns for the months from May 2018 to January 2019 and had not discharged their GST liability. The petitioner was summoned by the Superintendent (Anti Evasion), Central Tax and Central Excise, Headquarters Office, Kozhikkode for investigation.
Being dissatisfied with the response, a show cause notice was issued to the petitioner asking the petitioner to show cause as to why the amount of Rs.8,27,93,915/towards IGST, CGST, SGST and Cess should not be demanded and recovered from the petitioner under Section 73(1) of the CGST Act and Kerala SGST Act.
The petitioner had filed a GSTR-3B return thereafter and an amount of Rs.8,21,56,286/was deposited. The petitioner also demanded interest under the provisions of Section 50 and penalty under the provisions of Section 73(9) read with Section 73(11) of the CGST Act and Kerala SGST Act and Section 20 of the IGST Act. The order passed by the first respondent is an appealable order under Section 107 of the CGST Act.
Instead of filing an appeal, the petitioner approached the Court impugning the order. The court held that the court does not exercise appellate jurisdiction, but only exercises limited jurisdiction of judicial review. The order passed by the first respondent cannot be said to be without jurisdiction or in violation of the principle of natural justice.
A single bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh held that “However, it will be open to the petitioner to file an appeal against the impugned order before the appellate authority under the provisions of Section 107 of the CGST Act, inasmuch vide notification No.53/23 issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, the limitation for filing the appeal has been extended up to 31.1.2024 for the assessment years 2017-18 and 2018-19.”
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