High Court orders tax authority to re-open the online portal

High Court orders tax authority to re-open the online portal

Chhattisgarh court directs GST Authority to accept the manual filing of forms

The Chhattisgarh High Court has directed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Authority to either re-open the online portal or accept the manual filing of Form TRAN-1.

The single bench of Justice P Sam Koshy directed the respondent to process the assessees claim for grant of the input tax credit at the earliest.

The petitioner, Nagorao Auto Engineering Work, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, was aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondents in permitting it to submit the TRAN- 1 Form under the GST Act claiming for the input tax credit.

The petitioner submitted that it had made attempts to ensure that the form was uploaded through online mode. But due to a lack of experience of the legal heirs of the proprietor and also the person handling the accounting of the petitioner, the form could not be uploaded. It happened because of technical reasons.

The judge said that the reasons for not uploading were beyond the control of the petitioner. In fact, the petitioner had even requested for uploading the form afresh, or allowed to submit it manually.

However, the respondent submitted that pending the petition before the court, the respondent had passed the order a few months ago declining the request. The petitioner would have to file a fresh writ petition challenging the order and the present writ petition would not be sustainable, as the petitioner had not challenged the provision of a Rule under the GST Act. The Act prescribed a fixed date by which time the TRAN-1 Form had to be submitted.

But, finding merit in the petitioner's plea, the court ordered the respondent to process the assessees claim for grant of the input tax credit at the earliest.