Ansari Abu Agencies v. Superintendent of GST and Central Excise [2024]
Summary
The Madras High Court held that tax cannot be demanded solely on the grounds that Form GSTR-1 was not amended for correcting the duplicate invoices entered in Form GSTR-1 within specified time. It noted that the petitioner provided a certificate stating that purchasers did not claim Input Tax Credit based on the duplicated invoices.
Brief:
The petitioner furnished details of outward supplies in Form GSTR-1 for the period 2017-18. However, it inadvertently repeated the details of the same invoice resulting in entry of same invoice twice in Form GSTR-1. Upon receiving notification of these discrepancies, the petitioner clarified that it was an unintentional mistake and provided accurate information in its Form GSTR-3B return.
The department passed the order on the grounds that the taxpayer reported duplicated invoices in Form GSTR-1, and Form GSTR-1 was not amended on or before March 2019, which was the last date for amendment in Form GSTR-1.
Further, the petitioner contended that despite there being no loss to revenue, the petitioner was still subject to tax liability due to the inadvertent error. Consequently, it filed a writ petition against the demand order.
The High Court noted that the petitioner had responded to the notice and submitted certificates from concerned purchasers. These certificates confirmed that they had claimed the ITC by excluding the duplicate invoices. The petitioner's response was disregarded solely because the petitioner had not amended Form GSTR-1 before March 2019.
Therefore, the Court Set aside the order imposing tax liability should be set aside, and held that the matter needed reconsideration to ascertain whether purchasers did not avail ITC on duplicate invoices. It directed the department to grant the petitioner a reasonable opportunity, including a personal hearing and to issue a fresh order.
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