The Kerala High Court, in its recent judgment, has directed to avail the benefit under the Amnesty Scheme introduced by the government and rejected the request to waive Value Added Tax (VAT) without opting for amnesty scheme many years.
Тhe Kannur Building Materials, the petitioner has approached the Court seeking a direction to the 1 st respondent Government to consider and pass orders requests based on report/recommendation of the 4th respondent. The petitioner is a co-operative society involved in supply of building materials and as a part of their business they are also engaged in collection and sale of river sand. It is the contention of the petitioner that before the period of 2009-2010, VAT registration was not insisted for sale of sand.
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However prior to 2009-2010 the petitioner had remitted tax to the 5 th respondent as insisted by them. Subsequently the Commercial Tax Department insisted for payment of VAT in the Tax department itself on the sale of river sand after obtaining TIN in the year 2009-2010. Thereafter the tax from the year 2009-2010 onwards was remitted in the taxes department without any default after proper assessment. But for the years 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 the petitioner was assessed by the Commercial Tax Officer for VAT in respect of the sale effected during those years and required to pay VAT amount with subsequent interest.
Since the petitioner already parted with the goods for consideration, without taking into account of the VAT, the petitioner was not in a position to pay tax. The petitioner approached the 1 strespondent who issued the order wherein it is opined that the request of the society deserves sympathetic consideration and relaxation in the matter of tax and interest has to be considered by the Government through executive order either by way of waiver or remission.
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The stand taken by the Government in the counter affidavit is that the Government had brought in schemes of waiver of penalty and interest through the Amnesty Scheme in many years and the petitioner has not opted for the scheme and availed the benefit of the same and therefore the request of the petitioner to pass orders on representations for waiver of VAT arrears is not acceptable. It is also stated that the Government has proposed for another Amnesty Scheme which will be declared soon and the petitioner can very well apply under the Scheme.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that it is prepared to make appropriate application in the Amnesty Scheme proposed by the Government. Therefore, it is ordered that if such a request is made by the petitioner, the Government shall appropriately consider the same in accordance with law.
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A single bench of Justice Viju Abraham disposed of the writ petition, stating that “Till a decision is taken as directed above, the status quo order granted by this Court on 27.10.2021 shall continue. The petitioner shall submit necessary application in this regard within the time limit prescribed as per the Amnesty Scheme and if such application is not filed within the said time limit, the interim order granted by this Court on 27.10.2021 will stand vacated.”
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