The Bombay High Court directed the Designated Committee to consider declaration afresh as a valid declaration under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 (SVLDRS) and grant consequential relief.
The petitioner, Sabareesh Pallikere seeks to quash the order passed by the designated committee wherein it rejected the declaration of the petitioner filed under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 and further seeks a direction to the said respondent to reconsider the declaration of the petitioner in terms of the scheme and grant the reliefs to the petitioner.
The petitioner is the sole proprietor of the proprietorship firm M/s. Finbros Marketing has its office at Thane (West). Petitioner is engaged in the business of facilitating the distribution of personal loans in Mumbai and is associated with various banks and financial institutions. Being a service provider, it was registered as such under Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994.
In his statement, petitioner admitted that the total service tax liability for the period under consideration was around Rs.1.93 crores, further stating that after initiation of inquiry, petitioner had paid service tax of Rs.18 lakhs besides undertaking to discharge Rs.50 lakhs and a further amount of Rs.32 lakhs by December 2018. It was also stated that the remaining amount of service tax liability would be paid by March 2019 along with interest due.
In the meanwhile, the Central Government introduced the scheme through the Finance Act, 2019 for resolution of disputes relating to central excise and service tax which have since been subsumed in goods and services tax (GST).
The petitioner while availing the opportunity for settlement under the scheme, petitioner made a declaration in terms thereof under the category of inquiry, investigation or audit.
The division bench of Justice Milind N. Jhadav and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan while setting aside the order, remand the matter back to Designated Committee to consider the declaration of the petitioner afresh as a valid declaration in terms of the scheme under the category of investigation, inquiry, and audit and thereafter grant the consequential relief(s) to the petitioner.
The court directed the designated committee to provide an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and thereafter pass a speaking order with due communication to the petitioner within a period of eight weeks.
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