Sales Tax Bar Association moves Delhi HC to resolve System Glitches and Delay in Refunds [Read Order]

Misleading Court - Sales Tax Bar Association - Delhi High Court - Taxscan

The Sales Tax Bar Association (STBA) has moved the writ petition in Delhi High Court raising several issues in relation to the difficulties being faced in entertainment, processing and allowance of the refund claims made under Section 54 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, read with Section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act.

The Petitioners urge that refunds are not being acknowledged, processed and granted in terms of the aforesaid Acts and the Rules framed there-under.

The grievance of the petitioners is also that the statutory mechanism created for entertaining refund claims is not being implemented, and that there are some inherent lacunas in the scheme formulated by the Respondents to process the refund claims.

While hearing the petition, the division bench comprising of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sanjeev Narula has observed that “During the course of hearing the Counsel for the Petitioner highlighted several issues which are being faced by the Taxpayers on a daily basis. Some of the issues related to technical & procedural aspect. On some of the technical issues the stand of the Respondent is that they are legal issues and therefore, needs the Court’s interpretation/intervention. On other technical issues the Respondents have stated that they are ready to address the same.

Therefore, the Petitioner shall prepare a representation in bullet points and shall address all the issues as mentioned in the W.P and otherwise, and it shall be circulated among all the respondents and their counsel.

The Court also said that, “Further, IT grievance redressal mechanism will have a nodal officer who will receive the complaints from the taxpayers, and will update the status on of the complaints received/complaints resolved/pending and rejected within 2 weeks. Also, the Nodal Officer shall give the reason for the applications which have been rejected. Also for the pending application, it will indicate the time within which it will be solved”.

Further, if any grievance is not addressed or solved then it will escalate to the redressal committee. Also individual grievances shall be accepted by the Nodal Officer, the Court also added.

The Court was also has given directions such as: 1. The email id and phone number of the nodal officer will be published on the GST website and CBIC website. The status of the complaints will also be published on the status website. 2. GSTN shall upload a list of the operationalized forms on the GST Network. This exercise should be completed within the next 10 days.

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