Patna High Court imposes Rs. 5000 fine on GST officer for Illegal Recovery

The Patna High Court imposed a Rs 5,000 fine on a Goods and Services Tax (GST) officer for “forcible and illegal recovery” of a hundred percent tax amount from a person who was awaiting the statutory remedy of appeal before the GST tribunal, which has yet to be operational in Bihar.

A division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Rajiv Roy issued the ruling on Thursday, granting the writ application filed by the National Insurance Company’s Patna regional office.

The court ordered the state commercial taxes department to issue a refund of the whole tax amount recovered within two weeks.

Due to the absence of a GST tribunal in Bihar, the aggrieved assessees have been granted permission by the high court to pay 20% of the total assessed amount as a bona fide gesture of preferring an appeal before the GST tribunal, which will be filed as soon as the tribunal begins operations.

Petitioner’s attorney, Gautam Kejariwal, told the court that the assistant commissioner of the Patliputra circle of the commercial taxes department issued an assessment order for Rs. 52 crore on February 17, 2022.

A first appeal was filed against the excess assessment before the appellate authority. The appeal, however, was dismissed on September 21, 2022. Because the forum of the GST appellate tribunal is unavailable, the petitioner corporation deposited 20% of the assessed amount, as required by the GST law, in anticipation of an appeal before the GST tribunal once it begins operations in Bihar.