Goods and Services Tax Updates- Recent High Court Judgements in favour of the Assessee

1. The Hon’ble H.C of Madras Permitted Exclusion of Covid impacted period for GST refund Deadline.

In the case of Acrologic Business Solutions(P.) Ltd. Vs. Assistant Commissioner of Central Taxes (Madras High Court), (2024) 381 (Madras) (11-01-2024)

The High Court accepted the petitioner’s contention and held that the petitioner was entitled to avail the exclusion provided by the notification bearing no. 13/2022-CT dated 05-07-2022. The notification clearly stated that the period from 01.03.2020 to 28.02.2022 should be excluded for the computation of the limitation period for filing a refund application under Section 54 of the CGST Act.

The Court set aside the appellate order, stating that apart from concluding that the claim was barred by limitation, no other reason was provided for rejecting the refund claim. Consequently, the Court directed the Assistant Commissioner to refund the sum of Rs.7,34,732/- to the petitioner within two months from the date of the order. The writ petition was allowed without any order as to costs.

2. The Hon’ble H.C of Madras decision highlights that the failure to consider a petitioner’s response to a show cause notice can render a GST order invalid.

In the case of Make My Trip (India) (P.) Ltd. Vs. State Tax Officer (Madras High Court), (2024) 492 (18-01-2024).

Non-Consideration of reply to show cause Notice - Petitioner-assessee's had challenged that revenue did not take into consideration of assessee's reply to show cause notice in form DRC-01 - HELD : Non-consideration of reply to show cause notice certainly prejudices assessee's and denies assessee a reasonable opportunity to establish its position - Therefore, without expressing any opinion on merits of matter, orders were to be quashed and matter was remanded for reconsideration by assessing officer after providing a reasonable opportunity to the petitioner [Section 73 of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017/Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017] [In favour of assessee/Matter Remanded]