GST Update

 Desk of CA. Praveen Sharma – 935 Series (CAPS) 

BOMBAY HIGH COURT IN THE CASE OF Reliance Transport and Travel Pvt. Ltd.

The petitioner filed a writ petition challenging an order that partially rejected a refund claim of ?1,85,63,835 along with 12% interest. The petitioner requested the Court to cancel the order and direct the authorities to grant the full refund.

The petitioner, an authorized air taxi operator, had deposited a large amount during a service tax investigation. Earlier, the Court had quashed the show cause notices and ordered the department to refund the deposited amount with interest.

Although the department refunded a portion of the amount, the petitioner argued that the actual deposit was higher and that the balance refund was wrongly denied without proper examination of records and challans.

The department stated that it could not clearly identify whether certain challans related to self-assessed tax or payments made during the investigation, and therefore processed the refund based on available records.

After reviewing the case, the Court observed that the authority failed to properly consider the petitioner’s submissions and did not provide adequate reasoning for rejecting part of the refund. No evidence was produced to prove that the petitioner had not deposited the claimed amount.

Accordingly, the Court set aside the order to the extent it denied the balance refund. The petitioner was allowed to submit a fresh representation with supporting documents within two weeks.

The authority was directed to grant a personal hearing and pass a well-reasoned order within six weeks. The writ petition was allowed, and no costs were imposed.

LINK:CA. Praveen Sharma on Linkedin

Regards
CAPS