The Bombay High Court overturned a state tax deputy commissioner’s ruling against a corporation because the body “rejected the plea for reimbursement without noting any grounds.”
Colgate Global Business Services Pvt Ltd (a subsidiary of the Colgate Palmolive Group) applied to the deputy commissioner of state tax for a refund of Rs 4,33,03,066 in Goods and Services Tax (GST).
However, when it was denied by the authority on June 15, 2020, Colgate filed an appeal with the Supreme Court through attorneys Jitendra Motwani and Rinky Jassuja. Colgate argued that the deputy commissioner’s order rejecting the application in June 2020 was obligated to have included reasons.
The bench of Justices RD Dhanuka and SM Modak also held that the order rejecting the application violated the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) rules by failing to record the reasons for rejecting the refund application in writing.
Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan appeared for the Commissionerate of State Tax and stated that the deputy commissioner will issue a new order in accordance with the rules after giving Colgate an opportunity to be heard expeditiously.
After reviewing the submissions, the bench quashed and set aside the June 2020 ruling. Colgate’s reimbursement application for the period July 2017 to March 2018 for the value of Rs 4,33,03,066 has been reinstated for filing before the deputy commissioner.
The court ordered that the corporation appears before the authority again on February 2.
Colgate was given permission to re-apply to the high court if the authority issued an adverse order. However, if the authority does examine the return, the sum owed to Colgate must be refunded within two weeks of the Order’s issuance, according to the high court.