General discipline relating to penalty [ Section 126 ] - GST Ready Reckoner - GST

General discipline relating to penalty As per Section 126(1) of the CGST Act 2017, No penalty shall be impose by any officer under this act for Minor breaches of tax regulations or procedural requirements of the law and in particular, any omission or mistake in documentation which is easily rectifiable and made without fraudulent intent or gross negligence. For the purpose of this sub-section, a breach shall be considered a minor breach , if the amount of tax involved is less than five thousand rupees; an omission or mistake in documentation shall be considered to be easily rectifiable, if the same is an error apparent on the face of record . As per section 126(2),(3) (4) The following provisions have to be kept in mind by the proper officer while imposing penalty : 1. The penalty imposed under this Act shall depend on the facts and circumstances of each case and shall be commensurate with the degree and severity of the breach. 2. No penalty shall be imposed on any person without giving him an opportunity of being heard . 3. The officer under this Act shall, while imposing penalty in an order for a breach of any law, regulation or procedural requirement, specify the nature of the breach and the applicable law, regulation or procedure under which the amount of penalty for the breach has been specified. As Per Section 126(5) Voluntary Disclosure to be treated as mitigating factor for the purpose of imposing penalty 4. When a person voluntarily discloses to an officer under this Act the circumstances of a breach of the tax law, regulation or procedural requirement prior to the discovery of the breach by the officer under this Act, the proper officer may consider this fact as a mitigating factor when quantifying a penalty for that person. As per section 126(6) No Provision in respect to penalty shall apply in case of specified amount of penalty 5. The provisions of this section shall not apply in such cases where the penalty specified under this Act is either a fixed sum or expressed as a fixed percentage.