Karnataka High Court Remands GST Shortfall Matter Due to Absence of Personal Hearing

The Karnataka High Court remanded a GST matter to the authorities for reconsideration as the petitioner’s submissions were ignored by the department.

The GST department had alleged that the petitioner, M/s Inaya Enterprises, had not paid GST of Rs 3,25,565 for the period from April 2021 to March 2022. The authorities argued that this output tax collected was required to be paid by the petitioner.

The petitioner challenged this order before the high court, saying that a portion of the tax had already been paid and that the authorities had ignored the payments. The petitioner argued that if he had been given a hearing opportunity, he could have clarified the shortfall in tax and interest.

The High Court noted that the tax authorities had not considered the petitioner’s contentions. Considering this, the court concluded that the petitioner must be given a proper opportunity of hearing to explain the alleged shortfall of output tax. Therefore, the court set aside the GST order and sent the case for fresh consideration.