High Court upholds assessment order under U.P. GST Act, 2018

The High Court dismissed the writ petition challenging an assessment order under the U.P. GST Act, 2018. The court found that the petitioner had not opted for compounding during the relevant assessment year and had filed a return for regular assessment, thus rejecting the argument of being wrongly subjected to tax. The court concluded that the assessment order was valid, and the petition lacked merit.

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Issues: Jurisdiction of assessing authority under U.P. GST Act, 2018; Validity of assessment order; Compounding application and regular assessment.

In the judgment delivered by Saumitra Dayal Singh, J., the High Court of Allahabad heard arguments from the petitioner's counsel, Digvijay Tiwari, and the respondent's Standing Counsel. The case pertained to a writ petition challenging an order dated 10.06.2018 by the Assistant Commissioner Commercial Tax, Sector-6, Mathura, assessing the petitioner to tax for April 2018 under Section 64 of the U.P. GST Act, 2018. The petitioner had filed a first appeal against the order, which was dismissed as beyond time.

The main contention raised by the petitioner's counsel was that the assessing authority's order was without jurisdiction because the assessee had applied for compounding on 27.11.2017 and paid tax through that method, thus precluding the need for a regular assessment under the Act. However, the State's supplementary counter affidavit revealed that during the assessment year in question, the assessee had filed a return for regular assessment of tax and did not opt for compounding. Therefore, the court found no merit in the argument that the assessee was wrongly subjected to tax.

The court concluded that since the assessee had not opted for compounding during the relevant assessment year and had filed a return for regular assessment, the contention of being wrongly subjected to tax was baseless. Consequently, the writ petition was deemed lacking in merit and dismissed by the High Court.

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