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2022 (7) TMI 1118 - HC - Service TaxRejection of Form SVLDRS-1 - rejection of petitioner’s declaration on the ground that as per final audit report dated 7th November 2019 the amount of tax dues was not quantified before 30th June 2019 - HELD THAT:- To see whether the duty demand was quantified on or before 30th June 2019, let us examine the audit report which was released to petitioner on 9th October 2019. In the audit report the dates on which audit was undertaken is given as 29th March 2019 and 1st April 2019. Though the audit was completed on these two dates the Monitoring Committee held its meeting on 8th July 2019 and the Monitoring Committee issued Minutes of the Meeting on 16th July 2019. This date of 16th July 2019 is what has been relied upon in the impugned rejection letter. First of all, we are unable to accept that the date on which the audit committee decides to have its meeting and issue Minutes of the Meeting can ever be stated to be the date on which the amount was quantified. Generally, the same members of the audit committee may have to carry out audit of various other declarants and it would be impossible for them to prepare Minutes of the Meeting over night. This is one of the reason the circular dated 27th August 2019 has been issued where it says that ‘during the enquiry or audit the liability is admitted by the person in the audit report’. As could be seen from the four audit objections mentioned above, the declarant has admitted the duty liability under each head. Since the audit was conducted on 29th March 2019 and 1st April 2019, these would be the dates on which the amount of duty has been quantified. Therefore, the amount of duty has been quantified on or before 30th June 2019. Therefore, draft of the Minutes of the Managing Committee has been prepared by June 2019 itself and hence it can be safely concluded that though there was audit, amount of duty quantified also has been quantified before 30th June 2019. In our view, therefore, rejection of petitioner’s declaration on the ground that final audit report is issued after 30th June 2019 is incorrect. Respondents are directed to reconsider the declaration filed by petitioner and issue necessary discharge certificate in Form SVLDRS in accordance with law - petition allowed.
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