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Cus - Export of non-basmati rice - Notification 20/2023 insofar as it denies the benefit of the transitional arrangement as contained in para-1.05 of the FTP 2023, is bad in law: HCCus - Refund of SAD - 102/2007-Cus - Areca Nut and Supari are one and the same - Objections with regard to name, nature and status of importer or buyers or the end use of goods purchased by them etc. are extraneous: HCCX - Interest on Refund - Since wrong order annexed by petitioner in paper book, Bench is unable to proceed further - Petition is dismissed with liberty to file a fresh one: HCGST - No E-way bill - When petitioner imports machinery and after Customs clearance, transports same to his own factory, it cannot be said that such a transportation would fall within the definition of term 'supply' - Penalty imposable under second limb of s.129(1)(a): HCGST - Fix responsibility on officers who allowed BG to lapse - Petitioner not justified in not renewing BG - Cost of Rs.15 lacs imposed, to be paid to PM Cares Fund: HCGST - Since the parties agree that petition can be disposed of on the basis of records available before Appellate Authority, petitioner is directed to enclose all documents filed before Appellate Authority in a compilation, in form of a paper book: HCWrong RoadST - Whether any service is used for personal consumption or not is certainly question of fact and being question of fact, no substantial question of law arises: HCGovt proposes to amend Geographical Indication of Goods Rules; Draft issued for feedbackST - If what has been paid as tax is without authority of law, Revenue should refund the same - Denial of credit would result in the whole exercise being tax neutral: HCWarehousing Authority notifies several agri goods to be stored in only registered warehousesST - Even if the petitioner may have a case on merits, it is best left to be decided by the Appellate Authority under the hierarchy prescribed under the FA, 1994: HCUS FDA okays Eli Lilly Alzheimer’s drugGST - Petitioner challenges jurisdiction of assessing officer - Petitioner is entitled to file an appeal u/s 107 by availing an alternate efficacious remedy: HCFive from Telangana killed in car accident on Pune-Solapur HighwayGST - Existence of an alternative remedy is a material consideration but not a bar to the exercise of jurisdiction: HCHush money case against Donald Trump - Sentencing deferred to Sept 18GST - It is open to a trader to take goods by whichever route he opts, unless the law otherwise requires, destination point being intact: HCDeadly hurricane Beryl smashes properties in JamaicaGST - Conclusion that taxable person is providing a service to supplier while taking the benefit of a discount by facilitating an increase in the volume of sales of such supplier is ex facie erroneous and contrary to the fundamental tenets of GST law: HCIsrael claims 900 militants killed in Rafah since May monthGST - Order expressly records that personal hearing notice was returned with endorsement 'no such person at address' - Since petitioner has shifted to a new premises, it is just and necessary to provide an opportunity to contest demand: HC116 die in stampede at UP ’Satsang’I-T- Application for revision of order dismissed in limine on grounds of delay; case remanded for re-consideration: HCWe are deepening economic ties with India, says US officialI-T- As per Section 119(2)(b), power to condone applications relate to claims for amount exceeding Rs 50 lakhs are to be considered by CBDT; however it is impermissible for CBDT to pass order on merits: HC8 Dutch engineers build world’s longest bicycle - 180 feet, 11 inchesI-T- Additions framed u/s 68 for unexplained income & u/s 69 for unexplained expenditure not tenable where complete transactional details are furnished & not doubted: HCRailways earns Rs 14798 Crore from Freight loading in June monthI-T- Delay in filing ITR is per se insufficient reason to estimate assessee's profit @15% on turnover, more so where audited financial report is filed in timely manner: ITATMoD inks MoU to set up testing facilities in Unmanned Aerial System in TN Defence Industrial CorridorI-T- For invoking section 69A, assessee should be found to be owner of any money, bullion, jewellery or other valuable article & which is not recorded in the books of account: ITATGovt proposes Guidelines for ethical approach to Coal MiningI-T- TDS credit can be allowed based on AIS, where details pertaining to TDS, advance tax & other payments are reflected in Form 26AS: ITATVaishnaw to inaugurate Global IndiaAI Summit 2024I-T- Lending money with the primary intention of earning interest can be considered a business activity, but nature and manner of lending, as well as the frequency, should be taken into account: ITAT
 
Proliferate Litigation as much as you can

OCTOBER 21, 2020

By Vijay Kumar

THE Government loves litigation, COVID notwithstanding.

Delhi High Court in the  Brand Equity Treaties  case -  2020-TIOL-900-HC-DEL-GST observed,

The transition from the erstwhile regime to GST for the availment of the CENVAT credit was to be by way of a declaration to be submitted electronically in Form GST TRAN-1. The date prescribed for filing of the said Form was extended several times by way of orders issued from time to time. Several taxpayers however could not meet the deadline. This was on account of several factors - predominantly being inadequacies in the network of the respondents, which failed to meet the expectations and serve the needs of taxpayers. Thousands of taxpayers complained that there was low bandwidth and despite several attempts being made on the GST Network, they were unsuccessful in filing the statutory GST TRAN-1 Form online. Many such matters travelled to courts. Majority of them were allowed in favour of the taxpayers, and directions were issued to the respondents to permit the filing of TRAN-1 Form beyond the extended date.

The High Court directed the Government to either open the online portal so as to enable the Petitioners to file declaration TRAN-1 electronically, or to accept the same manually. The High Court held that other taxpayers who are similarly situated should also be entitled to avail the benefit of this judgment. The High Court further directed the Government to publicise this judgment widely including by way of publishing the same on their website so that others who may not have been able to file TRAN-1 till date are permitted to do so on or before 30.06.2020.

Did you see any government website carrying this judgement? So much for the respect the government has for the judiciary.

As expected, the government took the matter in SLP before the Supreme Court in this matter and several similar cases.

In ADFERT TECHNOLOGIES case - 2019-TIOL-2519-HC-P&H-GST, the Punjab & Haryana High Court, while disposing of 102 writ petitions, ordered,

Accordingly, we direct Respondents to permit the Petitioners to file or revise where already filed incorrect TRAN-1 either electronically or manually statutory Form(s) TRAN-1 on or before 30th November 2019. The Respondents are at liberty to verify genuineness of claim of Petitioners but nobody shall be denied to carry forward legitimate claim of CENVAT/ITC on the ground of non-filing of TRAN-I by 27.12.2017.

The Government took this also by SLP to the Supreme Court, which in 2020-TIOL-64-SC-GST dismissed the Revenue SLP.

Now what?

The CBIC had in November 2018 and August 2019 directed the field formations that "wherever Courts have allowed the reopening of portal or manual submission of Transitional Forms, which is against the current statutory framework, the same may be agitated by filing Review Petition/ Writ Appeal, as the case may be, and if the Review Petition/ Writ Appeal is not possible, a self-contained SLP Proposal may be forwarded to Board."

When the Board's SLP in the Adfert Technologies case has been dismissed in limine by the Supreme Court, what is the option before the GST Department? What is the future course of action? Board has sought legal opinion and it is in its favour.

The Board in a communication (F.No.276/262/2015-CX.8A Pt. III, dated 15th October 2020) passes on a lot of wisdom to the field formations. Board informs the field formations that:

1. The law is well settled that when there is in limine dismissal of SLP by the Apex Court, there is no enunciation of law, no doctrine of merger and accordingly, question of law remains open.

2. Hence, there is no bar on agitating the same question of law before the Supreme Court.

3. In fact, while deliberating on another issue of transitional credit in the case of M/s Brand Equity Treaties Limited, Hon'ble Apex Court stayed the operation of High Court order and tagged the Brand Equity case to the matters, which are similar to Adfert Technologies.

4. Further, in other similar cases, Hon'ble Supreme Court has been issuing notices.

Thus, the matter is very much alive and it is your duty to keep it alive.

The Board wants the field formations to take necessary actions for safeguarding the interests of revenue as per earlier instructions. Board had earlier informed the field that:

- it has been noticed that many High Courts are issuing orders whereby the direction is given to open the portal for filing GST Tran-1 declaration and/or allowing manual declaration of GST TRAN-1 even in the cases wherein, after the scrutiny, it was identified that the non-filing of the requisite declaration is not traceable to the glitches in the system.

- In fact, in many cases, it was identified that the declarations were not filed, mainly due to error committed on the part of the tax payers.

- Under these circumstances, re-opening of the portal for filing requisite declaration or allowing manual declaration of the requisite form may not be in consonance with the current statutory framework of GST law.

- Accordingly, if it was identified that error is not attributable to the Department /GSTN, the Commissionerates concerned are hereby directed to follow the following course of action

- The issue may be scrupulously examined and an appropriate legal remedial action including filing of a Review Petition or a writ Appeal, as the case may be, undertaken immediately, after consultation with the Government Standing Counsel. The said action may also be intimated to Board.

- If Review Petition/ Writ Appeal is not possible, a self-contained SLP proposal, may be forwarded to the Board.

Board is determined to fill the Supreme Court and High Courts with dockets - all for a paltry sum of credit, which the government wants to deny on mean technical grounds.

GSTN is overloaded: Fresh Glitches - who's to blame - taxpayer, naturally!

Another GLITCH happened yesterday. The portal simply could not manage the flow of returns.

Why did you all choose to file your returns on October 20th? The GSTN simply cannot take such last minute rush. Yesterday was a terrible day for the filers as filing a return would take hours - if you are lucky.

The Portal "GST Tech@Infosys_GSTN" tweeted late in the night,

Till now (11:00 PM) today 11,02,388 GSTR-3B returns have been filed compared to 4,85,563 last month on same day. In last 2 hrs 91,799 returns have been filed.

This shows that 91,799 people were busy from 9 pm to 11 pm filing returns and not engaged in useless activities like having dinner, watching TV to know what the nation wants to know or simply sleeping.

An earlier tweet read

Till now (5:00 PM) today 5,94,242 GSTR-3B returns have been filed compared to 3,04,847 last month on same day. In last 2 hrs 1,60,476 returns have been filed

Before that they had announced,

Message from Infosys Team:

Today we are getting intermittent complaints of slowness and timeout in the services at the portal for some taxpayers. Till 2:00 PM today 3,27,000 returns have been filed compared to 2,38,000 at the same time last month. In last one hour more than one lakh returns have been filed. Infosys team is constantly working to ensure better return filing experience. Also we will keep you posted of the developments. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.

What was happening? Mayhem and nobody to save.

Agitated taxpayers took to twitter to reply to @Infosys_GSTN.

At least 10 attempts required to file a return. Professionals are still at work to comply with due date. Portal is down for 4 days.

God give them some sense!!! 3 attempts to make payment in between 10 and 11.30. All failed, still they are twitting that site is working fine

That's not an achievement to boast or be proud of. Had the site been working for the past few days, then the results would have been pretty different. The returns filed in last two hours signifies that the professionals had to stay long to compensate someone else's incompetence.

Professionals are sacrificing their sleep to file returns at late night and GSTN is claiming it as their success story.

If GST portal works properly then there is no need of filing after office hours. Due to portal technical glitches, professionals are working late nights to save your huge late fees. Instead of resolving portal glitches, you are providing only clarifications.

Nothing to boast about bcoz

1. Professionals need to work late night for ur tech glitches

2. Back to back justification will improve nothing

3. Denying people hardships will raise more frustration among people

4. Portal is for taxpayer, not the other way round to waste man hours

You should be ashamed of that. The dealers and professionals had to wake-up till now and file GST returns. Since July 2017 we could not celebrate any festival or could spend a day with family.

So, you mean to say that the persons filing the return should work for late nights or till the early mornings due to your failure.

That Means People are Working till late Night instead of Sleeping or Giving time to their Own Family. That's What Mental Harassment one is facing working till last Minute so to avoid Penalties. The Pressure to File Returns are too high that One can't Even Spend time with Family.

If your site is working during the day, people won't be filing return between 9 pm to 11 pm.

Ok. So conclusion is GST return should be filed at mid night or early morning like 2 am. And fools try to file return during day time when obviously 1.5 lakhs are already filing returns.

We expect portal to run properly between 10 am to 7 pm and not between 9 pm to 11 pm

Will somebody listen to all these woes or are they busy planning for the next round of litigation?

Until next week


 RECENT DISCUSSION(S) POST YOUR COMMENTS
   
 
Sub: Common portal abandoned

I think, the Government has abandoned the Common Portal to the God, GSTN and Infosys. As long as the tax money keeps pouring in, why bother about the smooth functioning of the Portal? Registered persons are bending backwards to pay tax.

Posted by Gururaj B N
 

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