Court slams GST officials for blame game in tax case
A Delhi court pulled up SGST (state GST) and CGST (central GST) officials for allegedly trying to blame each other instead of initiating an appropriate action against the alleged delinquent firms in a Rs 940 crore tax evasion case.
The court noted that four separate replies have been filed on behalf of CGST east, south, west, and north and apparently, in the replies, all the four commissionerates from CGST are attempting to pass on the buck to SGST.
It said that on the last date of hearing assistant commissioner, appearing on behalf of SGST, had claimed that they have already initiated action at their end not only against the alleged delinquent firms but also against their employees.
It added that she had categorically insisted that information was duly shared by them with CGST and yet CGST was not inclined to initiate any action against the remaining 202 firms out of 486 firms.
“From the replies filed today on behalf of CGST, a very sorry state of affairs is revealed. Evidently, as per the claim of CGST, SGST is not even aware of the correct address of the CGST offices. Regretfully, none is present today on behalf of SGST. The court is in pain to observe that instead of initiating appropriate action against the delinquent firms in the matter, wherein as per the claim of Delhi Police, a tax evasion of Rs 940 crore is involved, the authorities are involved in blame game,” additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana said in the order.
The court noted that unfortunately, none was present on behalf of SGST and even no reply has been filed on behalf of chairperson, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. It directed the SGST commissioner to file an affidavit regarding the action initiated by them in the matter.
