The Punjab And Haryana High Court in the case M/s Samyak Metals Pvt. Ltd. Versus Union of India and others observed and has directed the GST Department to return illegally recovered GST without issuing the Show Cause Notice and which being along with an interest of 6%.
The bench comprising of Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Kuldeep Tiwari in the case observed and has stated that it being the duty of the officer to inform the taxpayers with regards to the provisions of voluntary tax payment made through DRC-03. Thus, the petitioner in the case has deposited an amount of Rs. 35,73,147 but the same is not issued by the officer DRC-03 till date. Therefore, the department has followed the provisions as it has been stated under Rule 142 (2) of the Central Goods And Service Tax, Rules nor it has in the case issued any notice under Section 74 (1) of the Central Goods And Service Tax, Act, CGST Act.
In the present case, the petitioner or assessee being in the business of manufacturing aluminium ingots. Thus, the business premises of the petitioner were searched by the officers of the Central GST Commissionerate. It has been contended by the respondent before the court that during the search examined the purchase ledger and asked about the purchases made by the petitioner from M/s D.G. Enterprises, Faridabad. No document was returned during the search. Thus, after analysing the ledger of M/s D.G. Enterprises, the petitioner was forced to deposit tax in lieu of the input tax credit claimed by it on the purchases made from M/s D.G. Enterprises under the Central GST Act and State GST Act which includes the interest and the penalty.
Adding to it, the petitioner in the plea contended that even after depositing an amount, no GST DRC-04 has been issued by the respondent and the same has been recovered by the respondent without passing of any adjudicating order or following any procedure as it has been stated under Section 73 or section 74 of the Central Goods And Service Tax Act.
The court in the case observed and has stated that as per Rule 142 (2) of the CGST Rules, when the payment which is made in the form GST DRC-03, the proper officer has to issue an acknowledgement, while accepting the payment made by the said person in FORM GST DRC-04. ill date, thus, it was observed that they have neither issued FORM GST DRC-04 nor issued any notice under Section 74 (1) of the CGST Act. The respondent has not followed the instructions given by the Government on May 25, 2023, wherein it was also clarified that there being no bar on the taxpayers voluntarily making the payments on the basis of ascertainment of their liability for non-payment or short payment of taxes before or at any stage of the said proceedings.
Accordingly, the court directed the respondents for returning the amount to the petitioner along with simple interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of deposit and the same is to be made within the period of two weeks.
The counsel, Advocate, Sandeep Goyal appeared for the petitioner.
The counsel, Advocate, Tajender Joshi represented the respondent.
