Case: Ingram Micro India (P.) Ltd. v. State Tax Officer [Writ Petition No. 594 of 2024 dated January 12, 2024]
The Hon’ble Madras High Court’s noted that the assessing authority has clearly not applied its mind before drawing the conclusions and directed the assessing authority to take into consideration all relevant documents produced by the taxpayer, provide a reasonable opportunity to the taxpayer of being heard and issue a fresh order within a period of two months.
Fact
- The taxpayer stated that it is a registered person under GST laws and that it had claimed Input Tax Credit (ITC) under Section 16 of the CGST Act.
- In respect thereof, a show cause notice was issued with regard to non-payment to the suppliers for a period exceeding 180 days.
- In spite of the taxpayer replying and providing all the supporting documents, including the Chartered Accountant’s certificate, the impugned order came to be issued on the basis of the total trade payables of the taxpayer.
- The learned Government Advocate submits that the total trade payables of the company were taken into consideration because the taxpayer did not provide a proper break up of net trade payable relating to the State of Tamil Nadu.
Held
- Under the Companies Act, 2013, every company is required to file financial statements in respect of its entire operations and there is no provision for filing State-specific financial statements.
- However, the petitioner has submitted a certificate from a Chartered Accountant stating that the trade payables attributable to the State of Tamil Nadu are Rs.1816.48 million.
- The assessing authority has clearly not applied its mind before drawing the conclusions extracted above. Therefore, the impugned order is liable to be and is hereby quashed.
- The assessing authority is directed to take into consideration all relevant documents produced by the petitioner, provide a reasonable opportunity to the petitioner and issue a fresh order within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.