Inadvertent Human Error in E-way Bill: Madhya Pradesh directs GST dept to Impose Minor Penalty [Read Order]

A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the GST department to consider imposing a minor penalty on the assessee for the mistake of an inadvertent human error in the E-way Bill.

The petitioner, M/s Techno Steel Infraprojects is a private company engaged in the business of steel as well as HT wires, entered into an agreement with one M/s Reva Engineering Pvt. Ltd. Jabalpur, for supply of certain goods. As per the agreement, the goods had to be delivered at the factory at Rewa. A tax invoice was generated which reflected the destination as well as the registration number of the vehicle. Thereafter, the petitioner generated an E-way bill which is required to be carried along with the consignment. However, the address on the E-way bill was mentioned at the registered office of the consignee at Jabalpur, instead of Rewa and thus, the Revenue Authorities initiated proceedings under Section 129 of Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 which ultimately resulted in passing of the order by which the liability of additional tax, as well as penalty, was imposed against the petitioner and the appeal against the said order was also dismissed.

The petitioner challenged the order contending that the mistake while generating E-way bill was an inadvertent human error and there was no intention to evade the tax liability particularly, when the vehicle number which was transporting the goods was same.

The bench of Shri Justice Sheel Nagu & Shri Justice Maninder S. Bhatti has directed the department to consider the case of the petitioner for imposition of a minor penalty, while treating the mistake in question, to be a clerical mistake as per Circular dated 14.09.2018 bearing No.CBEC/20/16/03/2017-GST, issued by Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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