Penalty imposable for non-maintenance of accounts is Rs.10000/-
Facts- The petitioner is engaged in manufacture of lead ingots falling under GST Tariff Chapter Heading No. 7804. They are duly registered under the GST Act. On 6-1-2018 Anti Evasion Department of GST, Greater Noida visited the factory premises of the petitioner for verification of the records. The petitioner claimed that it produced all the records, however, the records of GST were not available in the factory premises as the same were kept at head office of the petitioner situated at Ghazipur. Petitioner has filed the present writ petition challenging the order passed by the Additional Commissioner GST, Gautam Budh Nagar being the order dated 27-1-2020 as well as the Appellate Order dated 15-1-2020, whereby the appeal filed by the petitioner has been dismissed. As the Tribunal as provided for under the GST Act has not been constituted and in absence thereof the party cannot be left remediless as such the present petition has been filed.
Held– The only allegations are that the petitioner has not maintained the Book of Accounts as are required under the Act and the Rules and secondly the penalty has been imposed holding the petitioners conduct in violation of Section 122(1)(xvi) and (xvii) of CGST Act read with Section 122(1)(xvi) & (xvii) of UP GST Act and thirdly, no exercise for quantification of the tax evaded has been done in pursuance to the powers conferred under Section 35(6) read with Section 73 or 74 of the Act. The Hon’ble high court held that in the given facts and circumstances of the case for the violations alleged and established against the petitioner, the maximum penalty that could be imposed upon the petitioner is Rs. 10,000/-.
The writ petition is allowed. The impugned orders dated 15-1-2020 and 27-1-2020 is set aside insofar as it relates to confiscation of goods and imposition of penalty in excess of Rs. 10,000/-, as the confiscation has been set aside, there is no question of payment of redemption fine.
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