Adjudication process, Goods and Services Tax - GST

[Sudhir Kumar]

A Show Cause Notice has been issued Under Section 74 of the CGST Act. Can adjudicating authority change it into section 73 on merit of the case while adjudicating the same case?

Posts / Replies

[KASTURI SETHI]

Sh.Pratham Jain Ji,

It is a purely technical dispute nothing else.

Q. Are there any case laws where in a scenario where an initial Show Cause Notice (SCN) was issued under Section 74 of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, but subsequently, the case was transferred to Section 73 ?

Ans. Since GST laws are still in their infancy, clear-cut case law on this issue is not possible. However, you can resort to case laws pertaining to Central Excise laws which will be equally helpful and applicable to the issue in GST regime inasmuch as analogy is the same and rationale behind this is also the same.

If the charge of suppression etc. has been 'forcibly' or wrongly invoked in the SCN for the purpose of extended period, the whole SCN does not become invalid. In other words, the SCN for the normal period also remains valid under Section 74. The extended period is inclusive of normal period also.

In case the extended period in a SCN has been wrongly or forcibly invoked, the SCN issuing authority is the major 'culprit'. and NOT the Adjudicating Authority. Can the adjudicating Authority not provide natural justice/fair justice at the first stage ? Why the Noticee/assessee should suffer without his/her fault ? Why the Noticee/assessee should be forced to get justice from the Appellate Authority ?

You need those case laws wherein strictures have been passed by High Court or Supreme Court against the SCN issuing authority for invoking extended wrongly/illegally.

To be contd.

[KASTURI SETHI]

Sh.Jain Ji,

The Commissioner (Appeals) will give you an opportunity to defend the case by calling for comments on the grounds of appeal taken up by the department. Whenever you get a copy of department's appeal, post the grounds of appeal here, I shall let you know how to counteract them (grounds of appeal).