EKA ACADEMY PRIVATE LIMITED. Vs. UNION OF INDIA, REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, MINISTRY OF FINANCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Director of petitioner one Muthukrishnan Iyyappan appeared as party in person. Therefore, we requested Mr. Raichandani to be the Amicus Curiae. Before we proceed with the case, we must express our appreciation for the assistance rendered and endeavour put forth by Mr. Raichandani, learned Amicus Curiae, for it has been of immense value in rendering the judgment.

(2.) On or about 5/4/2019 petitioner received an email from GST audit team stating that there was a service tax paid and payable mismatch for Financial Years 2014-2015 to 2017-2018 and directed petitioner to produce documents for the said period. Petitioner was also requested to pay the difference immediately. The difference indicated was only Rs.1.00 and we are unable to understand why petitioner did not choose to pay the amount and close the file. Instead, as we would note, petitioner has willingly chosen to take an arduous route and is now ready and willing to pay a sum of Rs.22,00,414.00 as service tax for Financial Years 2014-2015, 2015- 2016, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.

(3.) It is stated in the petition that petitioner conducted an internal audit and found that the amount of Rs.22,00,414.00 was short paid. Petitioner thereafter, decided to take advantage of Sabka Vishwas Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme (SVLDRS) and filed a declaration in Form-1 under the voluntary disclosure category declaring a sum of Rs.16,04,367.00. This declaration was filed on 6/11/2019. This was accepted by respondents and petitioner was called upon to make the payment within 30 days. Petitioner did not make the payment but instead filed another declaration dtd. 30/12/2019 under the category - Investigation, Enquiry or Audit, sub-category - Investigation by Commissionerate and declared the amount of Rs.22,00,414.00 as the quantified amount.