An individual can not be penalized if he has paid an accurate amount of tax but mistakenly mentioned an incorrect amount in the GST E-Way bill.
Let us understand this with an example.
Mr. Ram generated an e-Way bill with place of delivery as ‘XYZ’ and the value of the goods as Rs.3,45,000/-. However, he realised that the place of delivery mentioned in the e-Way bill is incorrect and he decided to cancel this e-Way bill.
Mr. Ram generated another e-Way bill with the correct place of delivery but this time he unintentionally mentioned an incorrect value of goods as Rs.3,42,000/-.
As a result, the Assistant State tax Officer detained the goods of Ram on account of disparity in the e-Way bill.
In this case, no penalty can be levied on Mr. Ram as he paid IGST in accordance with the amount mentioned in the First bill which is the correct amount.
Read Also: Key Amendments Made in the e-Way Bill System
According to the Court, when human mistakes are apparent enough to be detected from naked eyes, the errors can not be penalised.
In general, the Court does not persuade the acceptance of the contention on prima facie value because such decisions are taken by the competent authority and the Court only passes order release of the goods & vehicle as against the Bank guarantee.
In the instance mentioned above, the goods and the vehicle shall be released to Mr. Ram on the execution of a simple bond.
