The Delhi High Court observed that no penalisation for inadvertent error in submitting erroneous information which has since been rectified.
The petitioner, M/s Shri Shyam Footwear, had filed a refund application in the relevant form (RFD-01), claiming refund of unutilised Input Tax Credit along with other necessary documents as prescribed under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the rules made thereunder.
The concerned authority issued a notice indicating that the application was defective. The petitioner responded to the said notice in FORM-GSTRFD-09 on 07.06.2021. The petitioner accepted the error in filling up the details in column no. 7 and filed a revised Annexure rectifying the information as in Column No. 7.
The petitioner claimed that the aforesaid reply was uploaded on the portal and is duly reflected but the annexure thereto is not reflected in the portal. Thereafter, the petitioner received an order rejecting the petitioner’s application for refund for the reason as stated in the notice.
Apparently, the concerned authority had not taken note of the petitioner’s annexure rectifying the necessary form, which was annexed with the reply.The petitioner appealed the said order to the Joint Commissioner Central Goods and Services Tax Appeal(Appellate Authority). The petitioner also filed written submissions enclosing therewith a copy of Annexure B to the reply submitted earlier, which, according to the petitioner, reflected the correct information.
Notwithstanding the same, the petitioner’s appeal was rejected by an order inter alia, on the ground that Annexure B was not complete in all respect, as was necessary for processing the refund and the petitioner had failed to upload the same at the time of filing of the application.
The Bench comprising Justice VibhuBakhru and Justice Amit Mahajan observed that “It is apparent from the above that the rectified information as submitted by the petitioner was not taken into account by either of the concerned authorities while considering the petitioner’s grievance regarding non-payment of its refund, as claimed.”
“We are of the view that it was essential for the concerned authorities to examine the information as submitted by the petitioner and process its claim for refund in accordance with law. Clearly, the petitioner cannot be penalised for the inadvertent error in submitting an erroneous information against Column No. 7 of its form, which has since been rectified” The Court opined.
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