HC grants SpiceJet relief against recovery proceedings by GST authorities
Low-cost airline SpiceJet has been
granted relief from the Punjab and Haryana High Court which has asked the GST department to
consider and pass an order on the airline’s plea of paying the tax dues in
instalments.
GST authorities
issued a notice in late July, asking SpiceJet to pay tax
liabilities of Rs 80.6 crore and furnish details of movable and immovable
properties, warning that they would initiate recovery proceedings if the
payment was not made.
SpiceJet did
not dispute the tax liability in its petition. The company, however, opposed
any recovery proceedings and requested the tax authorities to allow it to pay
the dues in 24 instalments, instead of a single payment.
“Having heard the learned counsel appearing for both the parties,
we find the prayer of learned senior counsel for the petitioner to be a fair
one. Consequently, we dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the
Excise and Taxation Commissioner of State Tax, Haryana to decide the
representation by passing a speaking order within a period of two weeks from
the date of receipt of certified copy of this order,” the court said in its
order.
“Since the tax liabilities were never opposed by SpiceJet and it
had requested the authorities to pay in instalments due to the unprecedented
hit to business because of Covid-19. Since the dues were never opposed by the
company and instead more time was sought, to clear the dues, a writ petition
was filed opposing recovery proceedings. The court has recognised this and has
asked the tax authorities to decide on the company’s request,” said advocate
Anuj Dewan, who represented SpiceJet in the case.
The excise and taxation department of Haryana on July 27 sent a
show cause notice to SpiceJet saying that the company hadn’t paid tax dues of Rs
80.6 crore which included the period of FY20, FY21 and FY22 (April-June). The
department said if the dues were not cleared by 4 August, it would start
recovery proceedings against the company.
SpiceJet responded to the show cause notice saying that since the
company was facing an acute cash crunch due to the adverse impact of the first
and second wave of Covid-19, it be allowed to pay the tax liabilities in 24
equal monthly instalments.
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