2025 (3) TMI 1173

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....jith, SC JUDGMENT Petitioner challenges Ext.P2 demand notice. As per the said notice, petitioner has been called upon to pay a late fee for the delay in filing GSTR-1 and GSTR-9 returns. 2. Petitioner is a taxpayer. For the year 2018-19, the annual return in GSTR-9 was filed by the petitioner on 16-03-2023, while for the year 2019-20, it was filed on 21-03-2023. The aforesaid returns were....

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....ect from 01.04.2023. As per the scheme, late fee for those taxpayers who had failed to file their returns within time, but had furnished the returns between the period 01-04-2023 upto 31-08-2023 were given the benefit of waiver of late fee above Rs. 10,000/-. In other words, those taxpayers who had filed their returns before 01-04-2023 would not get the benefit, but those who filed after the said ....

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....n came in, not being given the benefit of waiver of late fee as mentioned above. Such a differential treatment between persons who filed their returns, belatedly but before the notification came in, and those who filed within the period prescribed by the notification, is according to me, improper. 7. In the decision of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in M/s. RT Pharma v. Union of India & Others....

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.... date on which the amnesty commenced. 9. Since the intention behind the two notifications is to encourage the taxpayers to file their returns, a person cannot be put to prejudice merely because he filed the returns prior to the date fixed in the Notification. It is in fact, the spirit of the Notifications that has to be taken into consideration. Viewed in that light, petitioner having filed its....