In an important instruction issued by CBIC vide Instruction No. 04/2023, dated November 23, 2023, the Board has laid down the importance of electronic uploading of summary of Show Cause Notice (‘SCN’) in Form GST DRC-01 and Order in Form GST DRC-07.
Issue
- Uploading Form GST DRC-01 and Form GST DRC-07 on GST portal is mandatory under Rule 142 of the CGST Rules.
- However, this was not done in many cases. Resultantly, SCNs and Orders were struck down by Courts only on this infirmity.
Instruction
- The Board, now, has clearly instructed the Proper Officers to upload Form GST DRC-01 and DRC-07 on the portal to avoid such non-compliance.
GABA & CO. | Remarks
- In our recent experience in Chennai, when we argued this point to one Officer, he contended that since GST adjudicating portal is new for us, sometimes we genuinely miss these things. We smiled and replied, how ironical? Karma hits back!
- On a serious note, the taxpayers should incorporate this argument in their replies (apart from merits) so that the matter can be closed at lower stage only.
- Similarly, many officers have not signed SCN or Orders and uploaded the same on the portal arguing that once SCN or Order is uploaded electronically, it would be deemed to be electronically signed document under Information Technology laws and hence, valid. However, such an argument won’t help. Recently, one of the High Courts held that unsigned SCN/Order is not a valid document even if uploaded on GST portal.
- One should also challenge the time barring of SCN on the ground that the Government has unlawfully extended the timelines for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 under Section 168A of the CGST Act. This matter is pending before Gujarat & Allahabad High Courts and taxpayers are expecting favourable decisions from both High Courts.
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