Rajasthan High Court stays recovery of GST Penalty only if 50% of penalty is paid [Read Order]

The Rajasthan High Court stayed the recovery of GST penalty only on the condition that 50% of the penalty is paid.

The petitioner pleaded that the penalty envisaged under Section 73(11) read with Section 73(9) is excessive, oppressive and manifestly arbitrary being violative of Article 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India, therefore, the same cannot be imposed and recovered from an assessee in general and petitioner in particular.

The petitioner contended that no penalty under Section 73(11) can be imposed where the principal amount of tax dues have been deposited tax and only the interest remains payable. For the purposes of Section 73(11), the expression ‘amount of self-assessed tax’ would not include within its fold any interest payable.

The division bench consisting of Justice Rameshwar Vyas and Justice Sangeet Lodha held that if the petitioner deposits the outstanding amount of interest and 50% of the penalty amount within a period of one month from the date of this order, the recovery of the remaining amount of penalty pursuant to order impugned dated October 15, 2019, shall remain stayed.

Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan AdFree. We welcome your comments at info@taxscan.in