The single bench of the Calcutta high court in a writ petition filed before upholds the proceedings on expiry of E-Way bill during transportation due to breakdown of vehicle.
The petitioner Ashok and Sons is the manufacturer/supplier of milestone Bitumen Emulsion and Allied products. He is a Registered Taxable Person duly registered under the GST Act with specific GSTIN number.
For the purpose of transporting the said goods the petitioner paid IGST at the rate of 18%. On payment of IGST E-Way bill was generated for transportation of the said goods from Begusarai to Guwahati.
In the course of transportation the good carriage suffered from breakdown and it was detained in a motor vehicle garage within the jurisdiction of Jalpaiguri. The vehicle was intercepted by the State Tax Officer and on inspection it was found that the E-Way bill in respect of the consignment had expired. Subsequently, the Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Investigation Headquarter imposed SGST and penalty In order to release the vehicle the petitioner had to pay tax and the vehicle, but preferred an appeal before the appellate authority. But the appeal was dismissed. Against this order petitioner filed the writ petition before the High court of Gujarat.
On behalf of the petitioner Advocates Jagriti Mishra, Subham Gupta, Debayan Goswami, Reshab Kumar, appeared.
Advocates Subir Kumar Saha, and Bikramaditya Ghosh, appeared for the respondents .
Counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has no intention to evade tax. Petitioner already paid IGST at the rate of 18% on the value of the goods and procured E-Way bill. However, it was not within the control of the petitioner that there would be a mechanical defect of the said truck.
Counsel for the respondent submits that if a vehicle with certain consignment is found in statutory condition for this together it is supposed under the GST Act that the said goods are presumed to be delivered within the territory of the state itself. Petitioner’s consignment was found lying within the territory of the state for more than three days. The E-Way bill had expired. The petitioner had the opportunity to extend the validity of the E-Way bill when the goods vehicle allegedly had mechanical defects.
Further respondent counsel contended that the petitioner did not take any step for extension of E-Way bill. When the E-Way bill has not been extended it would be presumed that the consignment was sent to the State when the breakdown happened.
After considering the contentions of the both parties the single bench of the Justice Bibek Chaudhuri held that the “respondent authority is lawfully permitted to impose penalty under Section 129 as well as the State Goods and Service Tax Act 2017 as the goods were found to be detained in the territory of the State”.
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