The Uttar Pradesh Commercial Tax Commissioner issued guidelines for attachment of Property under the Uttar Pradesh Good and Service Tax (GST) Act.
section 83 of the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 provides for provisional attachment of property for the purpose of protecting the interest of revenue during the pendency of any proceeding under section 62 or section 63 or section 64 or section 67 or section 73 or section 74 of the Act.
“Doubts have been raised by the field formations on various issues pertaining to provisional attachment of property under the provisions of section 83 of the Act read with rule 159 of Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. Besides, in a number of cases, Hon’ble Courts have also made observations on the modalities of implementation of provisions of section 83 of the Act by the tax officers. In view of the same, the following guideline is hereby issued with respect to the exercise of power under section 83 of the Act,” the Commercial Tax Commissioner in the letter said.
The remedy of attachment being, by its very nature, extraordinary, needs to be resorted to with utmost circumspection and with maximum care and caution. It normally should not be invoked in cases of technical nature and should be reported mainly in cases where there is an evasion of tax or where the wrongful input tax credit is availed or utilized or wrongfully passed on. While the specific facts of the case need to be examined in detail before forming an opinion in the matter, the following are some types of cases, where the provisional attachment can be considered to be resorted to, subject to specific facts of the case.
The attachment can be undertaken where supplied any goods or services or both without the issue of any invoice, in violation of the provisions of the Act or the rules made thereunder, with an intention to evade tax; or issued any invoice or bill without supply of goods or services or both in violation of the provisions of the Act, or the rules made thereunder, or c. availed input tax credit using the invoice or bill referred to in clause (b) or fraudulently availed input tax credit without any invoice or bill; or d. collected any amount as tax but has failed to pay the same to the Government beyond a period of three months from the date on which such payment becomes due or fraudulently obtained refund; or passed on input tax credit fraudulently to the recipients but has not paid the commensurate tax.
It was clarified that every provisional attachment shall cease to have effect after the expiry of a period of one year from the date of the provisional attachment order. Besides, the provisional attachment order shall also cease to have effect if order in FORM GST DRC-23 for release of such property is made by the Commissioner.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan AdFree. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates.
