Bombay High Court tells Centre and Maha government to set up grievance mechanism for easy filing of GST tax

The Bombay High Court has asked the Central and State Government to ensure that proper grievance rederessal mechanism is formulated for proper/better, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

A division bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharati Dangre said, "We do not think these are satisfactory state of affairs. A tax like GST was highly publicized and termed as popular. We had yet not seen a celebration of New tax regime, but that has followed with great hue and cry. These celebrations mean nothing."

The court while hearing a petition filed by Abicor and Binzel Technolweld Private Limited, which is engaged in manufacturing of robotic and automation equipment, and has moved court against the being given limited access to its profile on the GST network, said "The special sessions of Parliament or special or extraordinary meeting of Council would mean nothing to the assesses unless they obtain easy access to the website and portals. The regime is not tax friendly."

The court has asked the authorities to reply to the petition by filing a detailed affidavit on March 16. It said "We hope and trust that those in charge of implementation and administration of this law will at least now wake up and put in place the requisite mechanism. This is necessary to preserve the image, prestige and reputation of this country, particularly when we are inviting and welcoming foreign investments in the state and country. We hope and trust that such petitions are rarity and the court will not be called upon to administer the implementation of the law.

The company claimed that having been granted provisional registration number under the Act, it is not able to access its online profile on the GST network. Since the Electronic Way Bills rules have yet not come into force, therefore without access to the online profile, company cannot generate E-way bills. Thus cannot move the goods anywhere. Lack of access also means that it is unable to file returns or pay tax or undertake any other compliance.