GST Update No 124 on E-filing of Appeal in GST era

GST Law is introduced and implemented by Government of India in order to reduce the complexities faced by the taxpayers. Consequently, in order to develop an easy tax reform, compliances were digitalized including the filing of appeal. However, owing to technical difficulties and the time required for developing required IT infrastructure, there have been various infractions in complying with the requirements of the GST Law. Recently, an issue came before Hon’ble Kerala High Court in the case of JOSE JOSEPH V/S ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL TAX AND EXCISE wherein the appeal was rejected as time barred as the same was filed manually instead of electronically, that too, beyond the stipulated time period. The outcome of this decision is subject matter of our today’s update. The issue involved in the case was regarding electronic filing of the appeal of refund claims. The petitioner was aggrieved by the fact that the order was not uploaded on the common portal and hence, they could not file the appeal in the electronic form which is mandatory as per the provisions. The order was communicated to the petitioner on 10.04.2019. Hence, the petitioner filed the appeal manually which was rejected as being time barred. The petitioner contended that since the order was not uploaded, it was not possible for them to electronically file the appeal. Reliance was placed on Gujarat High Court’s judgement in case of GUJARAT STATE PETRONET LIMITED V. UNION OF INDIA. The Counsel for the department argued that in order to reduce the difficulties faced by taxpayers during electronic filing, manual filing of appeals is also accepted. Further, they argued that as there was delay of more than 180 days in filing the appeal as against the stipulated period of 3 months from date of communication of order with a condonation delay of further 1 month, their appeal was rejected as time barred. The Court held that as the order was not uploaded on the portal, the petitioner was unable to file the appeal electronically. The Court held that the rejection of appeal as time barred by Appellate Authority is not justified when the department defaulted in complying with the statutory provisions.The period of limitation shall not start from the receipt of physical copy of order by the petitioner but from the date when it is uploaded on the portal. Hence, the right to appeal cannot be denied to the petitioner on the grounds of delay in filing appeal. Reliance was placed on the decision given in the case of GUJARAT STATE PETRONET LIMITED V. UNION OF INDIA wherein it was held that uploading the order and filing of appeal are intertwined activities and hence, appeal can be filed within 3 months only after the order is uploaded on the portal. The idea behind digitalization is to promote uniformity and reduce paper work for the ease of taxpayers so that corruption is eradicated. However, default in compliances on account of lapses by revenue authorities cannot snatch the right of appeal available to the assessee. In past, there have been instances wherein Apex Court and the High Courts have ruled that substantial benefit cannot be denied on account of procedural/technical lapses and appropriate relief has been granted to the assessee. To illustrate- there were lot of technical glitches while filing TRAN-1 during the initial stages of GST implementation but courts have provided reliefs to the assessee in genuine cases. The above decision is also beneficial as it seeks to ensure that the right of appeal is not extinguished for procedural lapses occurred on part of revenue authorities.

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GST Update No 124 on E-filing of Appeal in GST era

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