The stay order was passed pursuant to Mehta’s submissions that only Rs 200 per day was being charged for the filing of late returns and the amount will be refunded in case the government lost the case.
The Supreme Court has stayed the Rajasthan High Court order that extended the deadline for filing of Form GSTR-9 (annual return) and Form GSTR-9C (reconciliation statement) without fine by up to a week to February 12, 2020, on a plea by the Centre that the move could undermine its efforts to boost GST compliance. Having had to extend the deadlines for filing of the two forms several times and come under flak for such leniency, the government pleaded in the SC: “Tinkering with such timelines would have a catastrophic impact on the functioning of GST law, as it has the tendency to create confusion and ambiguity in the trade.”
In the matter of UOI vs Tax Bar Association, Supreme Court through its bench comprising of Justice R F Nariman and Justice Ravinder S Bhatt has refused to interfere in order as passed by Rajasthan High Court and also clarified that there would be no penal consequences for delayed filing due to problems of GSTN Server.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that extension in due date requires entire modification in Software and therefore it creates ambiguity and chaos. Therefore, the Supreme Court said that no further extension would be given post 12th February 2020 through interim order.
Learned Counsel Mr Sanjay Jhanwar, Mr Rishabh Sancheti, Mr Prateek Gattani and Mr Rajat Sharma appearing for Respondents association demonstrated bottlenecks and technical errors at GSTN portal. Pursuant to which Ld. SG assured that no penal consequences shall be taken on account of delayed filing.
Further, Supreme Court directed the UOI to file a detailed reply to address the bottlenecks especially the lower capacity of the server of GSTN before High Court and the High Court to decide issue finally on the basis of facts without getting influenced by this ad-hoc order.
No late fee until Feb 12
In this regard, it was hoped that a writ or direction be issued to the government herein, directing them to extend the due date at least by 30 days and/or any such other days as deemed fit, for filing forms GSTR 9/GSTR9C.
The High Court, although, allowed the Centre to file its representation by February 12, but also directed that as an interim measure, no late fee would be charged till February 12, 2020, for uploading returns in Forms GSTR 9/9C, which in effect was an extension of the due date/cut off date for furnishing returns for FY2017-18.
