Supreme Court Increases Penalty On GST Officer For Falsely Penalising Company Staff.

New Delhi, Jan 26: The Supreme Court had imposed fine on a GST officer from Telangana for falsely imposing penalty of Rs 69,000 M/s Satyam Shivam Papers Pvt. Ltd. as the e-way bill had expired a day earlier.

A division bench of justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishekesh Roy not only set aside the penalty levied by the GST officer, but also increased the fine imposed on him, by the High Court for the State of Telangana at Hyderabad from Rs 10,000 to Rs 69,000.

Concurring with the HC judgment, SC said that there was nothing on record to show that the company was evading tax because the e-way bill had expired a day earlier.

The SC has also taken a stern view saying that the officer’s intention was questionable, particularly when it was found that the goods in question, after being detained were, strangely, kept in the house of a relative of the officer for 16 days and not at any other designated place for their safe custody.

The Supreme Court has clarified that State government would be entitled to recover the amount of costs, after making payment to the company, directly from the concerned officer responsible for this entirely unnecessary litigation.

SOURCE: Cross Town News

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