In a recent ruling, the Madras High Court quashed the order of Tamil Nadu VAT authorities denying the Input Tax Credit claim of the assessee solely on ground that “mismatch of annexures”.
The petitioners, Western Thomson India Limited, a dealer in Automobile parts and registered under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 approached the High court impugning the orders. the Revenue claimed that the petitioner has not reconciled the availment of ‘mismatch’ with due break-up together with copies of invoices and not provided enough documents before the Inspecting Officer in support of their claim for ITC.
Diving deeply into the facts of the case, Justice T.S. Sivagnanam noted that “First of all, the Assessing Officer could not have been solely guided by the Inspection Officer’s report. Secondly, the petitioner has given details in the form of annexures, which runs to more than 150 pages. The Tabulated Statement gives the details and the relevant page numbers. The respondent did not consider any of those documents. Even assuming that certain documents are lacking, then the respondent ought to have issued a notice to the petitioner and called upon the petitioner to produce the relevant documents. However, in the instant case, though the petitioner sought for a personal hearing in their objections dated 06.06.2016, the same was not granted”
Quashing the order, the single bench observed; “This has been demonstrated to be factually wrong, as the petitioner has given documents and details in a compilation of 150 pages. However, this Court is not commenting upon the veracity of the documents. But, it is the duty of the Assessing Officer to consider those documents. Without considering the same, the respondent could not have rejected the petitioner’s objections and what appears to have weighed in the mind of the Assessing Officer is the report of the Inspecting Officers.”
Read the full text of the Judgment below.
