Madhya Pradesh High Court bench directed the department to consider imposing a minor penalty on the assessee for the minor mistake of human nature in creating an E-way Bill.
The petitioner which is a private company engaged in the business of steel as well as HT wires, entered into an agreement with one M/s Reva Engineering Pvt. Ltd. Jabalpur, for the supply of certain goods. As per the agreement, the goods had to be delivered to the factory at Rewa. A tax invoice was generated which reflected the destination as well as the registration number of the vehicle which has been brought on record as Annexure P/3. Thereafter, the petitioner generated an E-way bill which is required to be carried along with the consignment. However, the address on the E-way bill was mentioned at the registered office of the consignee at Jabalpur, instead of Rewa and thus, the Revenue Authorities initiated proceedings under Section 129 of Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 which ultimately resulted in the passing of the order by which the liability of additional tax, as well as penalty, was imposed against the petitioner and the appeal against the said order was also dismissed.
The petitioner has challenged the order passed by the original as well as appellate Authority. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the mistake while generating E-way bill was an inadvertent human error and there was no intention to evade the tax liability particularly, when the vehicle number which was transporting the goods was same and hence, prays for quashment of the orders.
The bench of Hon’ble Shri Justice Sheel Nagu & Hon’ble Shri Justice Maninder S. Bhatti after hearing learned counsels for the parties directed that the respondents will be at liberty to consider the case of the petitioner for imposition of a minor penalty, while treating the mistake in question, to be a clerical mistake as per Circular dated 14.09.2018 bearing No.CBEC/20/16/03/2017-GST, issued by Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
Consequently, the writ petition stands allowed to the extent indicated hereinabove. No order as to costs.
Technosteel Infraprojects pvt. Ltd.
Vs
The State of Madhya Pradesh
writ petition no.6118 of 2021
Decision in Favour of: Assessee
The High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur