The Supreme Court in a major relief to the Flipkart Internet, has provided a stay on the rejection of the plea by the Patna High Court as non-maintainable for payment of Pre-Deposit for Goods and Services Tax (GST) appeal from Electronic Credit Ledger (ECRL) instead of Electronic Cash Ledger (ECL).
The Supreme Court stayed the operation of Paragraphs 77 and 78 of the impugned order, till the disposal of the current petition for special leave to plea that the Flipkart filed.
Important: GST Impact on the E-commerce Sector in India
The pending disposal of the case, the observations in paragraphs ‘77 and 78’ of the impugned order will remain stayed” at the time of issuing notice to the respondent revenue, the Two-Judge Supreme Court Bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan stated.
Sr. Adv. Arvind Datar, along with Tarun Gulati, Sr. Adv, Kishore Kunal, AOR Runjhun Pare, Adv. and Jayesh Sitlani, Adv represent the petitioner, Flipkart Internet Private Limited to the Supreme Court in the case.
The pertinent portions of the issue to the Patna High Court is as follows:
Attributes
At the time of claiming the remedy of appeal, the three writ applicants under section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) act/Bihar Goods and Services Tax (BGST) act resorted to debiting their separate electronic credit ledger (ECRL) for an amount identical to 10% of the left tax amount in the dispute emerges from the assessment order in concern to which the petition was filed.
This sum needs to be deposited failing which the petition is not maintainable under the provision of sub-Section 6 (b) of Section 107 of the CGST/BGST Act.
Issues
The petition has been rejected by the Appellate Authority as it is ineffective for the non-payment of the pre-deposit. 10% pre-deposit can merely be filed via using the cash ledger resulting in an appeal to the Patna High Court, as per the appellate authority.
The Flipkart and other applicants challenged it in the Patna High Court.
Find
Section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax/Bihar Goods and Services Tax Act was not maintainable as the pre-deposit (10 per cent) as per Section 107 (6)(b) of the Act, was not complied with by the petitioners.
Supreme Court Order Stay in Present Matter
Appellate authority concludes that the payment of the pre-deposit (10%) could merely be made via ECL and needs no interruption through this court practising the jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Additional progress is awaited since the same matter shows the legal availability of the payment option of the pre-deposit via Electronic Credit Ledger (ECRL) rather than the Electronic Cash Ledger (ECL) for Goods and Services Tax Appeals, which has futuristic implications since the GST appellate authorities in the country are gearing up to the functioning state.
