Orissa High Court directs GST Network to modify the portal

Orissa High Court directs GST Network to modify the portal

Instructions to remove glitches in the website for the convenience of taxpayers

The Orissa High Court has directed the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) to modify the Goods and Services Tax (GST) portal to facilitate filing of transition form (TRAN)-1 to claim the Input Tax Credit (ITC). If not, it must accept returns manually against the old registration certificate.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice Dr S Muralidhar and Justice B P Routray held that the plea of technical difficulties or technical glitches would not come in the way of the order of the court.

The petitioner had sought a direction to implement the 2018 order passed by the Joint Commissioner of Sales Tax, in Bolangir (also known as Balangir), a district in Odisha (formerly Orissa). It had directed the restoration of the old registration number under the GST Act.

The petitioner had requested direction to permit him to avail the ITC as an existing dealer under the existing law or on the goods held in stock on the appointed day.

The standing counsel for the department submitted that even if the old registration number was restored, the stage for filing of TRAN-1 forms had crossed. Therefore, it would be of no assistance to the petitioner to have the old registration number restored.

The counsel maintained that since a new registration number was already granted to the petitioner on his application, he should not insist upon restoration of the old registration number. He drew attention to the undertaking given by the petitioner in 2017 when the new registration was issued to him.

The petitioner had undertaken to file returns as per the law and not repeat the mistake for which his earlier registration was canceled.

The contention of the department was that the cancellation of the petitioner's registration certificate issued originally under the Orissa Value Added Tax (VAT) Act came about since the petitioner had failed to file the returns.

However, the petitioner maintained that because of the cancellation of the registration certificate under VAT, he was not able to file returns and was forced to obtain a new registration number.