https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=294059 Penalty under the Finance Act, 1994 was challenged on the ground that service tax and interest were paid before issuance of the show cause notice, invoking the protection of s.73(3). The HC held that s.73(3) relief is unavailable where the non-payment falls within s.73(4), namely suppression of facts and wilful misstatement with intent to evade tax. On the facts, the assessee's explanation that a client's non-clearance of bills prevented payment was rejected as evidencing deliberate non-payment and suppression before the assessing authority; hence, pre-notice payment did not bar penalty. The appeal was dismissed and the penalty was sustained. en-us Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0530 Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:32:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=294059 Penalty under the Finance Act, 1994 was challenged on the ground that service tax and interest were paid before issuance of the show cause notice, invoking the protection of s.73(3). The HC held that s.73(3) relief is unavailable where the non-payment falls within s.73(4), namely suppression of facts and wilful misstatement with intent to evade tax. On the facts, the assessee's explanation that a client's non-clearance of bills prevented payment was rejected as evidencing deliberate non-payment and suppression before the assessing authority; hence, pre-notice payment did not bar penalty. The appeal was dismissed and the penalty was sustained. Case-Laws Service Tax Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=294059