The Madras High Court granted a hearing opportunity on the condition of a 10% pre-deposit after the petitioner was unable to upload a reply regarding GSTR 1 statement and GSTR 3B returns mismatches.
The petitioner, Abishek Suppliers Represented by its Proprietrix, received a show cause notice on December 14, 2023, requesting an explanation for the discrepancies. In her response dated January 12, 2024, the petitioner asked for additional time to submit a detailed reply. According to the petitioner, she could not upload the reply to the show cause notice thereafter.
The discrepancies resulted from an inadvertent error where only the transactions for November and December 2017 were uploaded in the GSTR 1 statement, while the GSTR 3B return included all transactions for the period, submitted by the Petitioner’s counsel.
He argued that given the opportunity, the petitioner could resolve the mismatch satisfactorily. The petitioner agreed to remit 10% of the disputed tax amount as a precondition for the case to be reconsidered.
Representing the respondent, the Government Advocate, stated out that the principles of natural justice were upheld by issuing the show cause notice and the subsequent impugned order, which came approximately three months after the petitioner’s request for additional time.
The bench of Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy observed that the tax proposal, based on the mismatch between the petitioner’s GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B, was confirmed solely due to the taxpayer’s failure to submit a reply. Considering the circumstances, the court deemed it just to allow the petitioner an opportunity to contest the tax demand on its merits.
The court set aside the impugned order on the condition remittance of 10% of the disputed tax demand within two weeks from the date of receiving a copy of this order. The petitioner was also granted permission to submit a reply to the show cause notice within this period.
The respondent was instructed to provide a reasonable opportunity for the petitioner including a personal hearing, and to issue a new order within three months from the date of receipt of the petitioner’s reply upon receipt of the pre-deposit. The petition was disposed of accordingly.
Ms.V.Vijayalakshmi appeared for the petitioner and Mrs.K.Vasanthamala, Govt. Adv. (T) appeared for the respondent.
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