KRISH AUTOMOTORS PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner, registered under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 ("CGST Act") has filed this petition inter-alia seeking a direction to the Respondents to permit the Petitioner to file the GST TRAN-I manually and allow the credit of Input Tax Credit ("ITC") of Rs. 1,41,02,394/- claimed in accordance with Section 140 (3) of the CGST Act, 2017, in its online electronic credit ledger for payment of its output liability under the GST laws.

(2.) The Petitioner is a dealer/distributor of Maruti Suzuki India Limited and is engaged in the business of trading and servicing of motor vehicles and parts and accessories of said motor vehicles. On the appointed day i.e. 1st July, 2017 when the CGST Act came into force the Petitioner was entitled to a credit of Rs.1,41,02,394/- in respect of the duties paid at the time of purchase of goods/stock on which central excise duty had already been paid. In terms of Rule 117 of the CGST Rules, 2017, the GST TRAN-1 was required to be filed by 30th September, 2017. Later, this time limit was extended till 30th November, 2017 and then till 27th December, 2017.

(3.) The Petitioner states that in view of the maze of compliance due dates, with the time extended time for filing the form GSTR-1 ending on 31st December, 2017, the accountant of the Petitioner is said to have missed noticing that the time for filing GST TRAN-1 was extended only till 27th December, 2017. The Petitioner was accordingly not able to file the GST TRAN-1 declaration online within time and claim the ITC of the eligible amounts. Thereafter, in order to be permitted to manually file the GST TRAN-1, the Petitioner made two representations dated 8th March and 19th March, 2018 to the jurisdictional GST Authorities, as well as representations dated 20th March, 2018 and 21st March, 2018 to the Ministry of Finance, Union of India and the GST Council respectively. With no response having been received from any of the aforesaid authorities, the Petitioner filed the present petition claiming the above relief.