Punj Lloyd Ltd v. The Commissioner Value Added Tax

S. RAVINDRA BHAT, J

A. K. CHAWLA, J JULY 12, 2018

* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Date of judgment 12.07.2018 + W.P.(C) 10620/2016 and CM APPL. 17868/2018 PUNJ LLOYD LTD ..... Petitioner Through: Mr. Vasdev Lalwani, Mr. Ravi Chandhok and Mr. Rohit Gautam, Advs. Versus THE COMMISSIONER VALUE ADDED TAX..... Respondent Through: Mr. Satyakam, ASC. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. RAVINDRA BHAT HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A. K. CHAWLA JUSTICE S. RAVINDRA BHAT 1. The petitioner (hereafter "the company") is aggrieved by the failure of the respondent (hereafter called "DVAT") to process and refund excess amounts payable to it for two periods and has approached this court. 2. The petitioner is, inter alia, engaged in the business ofworks contracts transactions and is registered as a dealer under the Delhi Value Added Tax Act (hereafter "the Act"). The company filed periodical returns (hereafter "the returns") for all tax periods of the assessment year 2011-2012 including return filed for the period March 2012 (hereafter "the period") enclosing tax deduction at source (hereafter "TDS") certificates in original. As of March 2012, the company had an excess amount credit of ` 4,60,41,149 it was entitled to. The company contends that this excess amount was inadvertently reflected as carry forward to the next tax period in the return instead of mentioning it in the column pertaining to refund for the subsequent period, which is clear from the fact that no benefit was reflected in the return for the next period. As the petitioner's representations were to no avail, it approached this court by filing W.P. (C) No. 5244/2016, seeking a direction to the DVAT to refund amounts due to it, given the position in law as to its entitlements under Section 38 and 42 of the Act and having regard to the fact that the respondents could no longer process the return and assess the amounts, in view of the limitation under Section 34. 3. This court disposed of the writ petition, on 30 May, 2016, directing as follows: "The case of the Petitioner's is that on 25th April 2012, a return was filed for the tax period March, 2012 claiming the above refund. However, as explained by the Petitioner in para 6 of the Petition, the above amount was "inadvertently reflected as carry forward to next tax period in the Return instead of mentioning in column pertaining to refund." During the course of the hearing, it transpired that the Petitioner never brought this fact to the notice of the concerned Value Added Tax Officer ('VATO'). 3. It is pointed by Mr Gautam Narayan, learned Additional Standing counsel that since the Petitioner has carry forwarded the refund amount in the returns for the following years, in order to claim the refund the Petitioner will have to file Form-DVAT- 21 read with Rule 34 of the Delhi Value Added Tax Rules 2005. 4. Mr Srivastava, learned counsel appearing-for the Petitioner states that the Petitioner will file Form-DVAT-21 within a period of two weeks from today. If the Form DV AT 21 is so filed, the concerned V ATO will examineand pass an appropriate order in regard to the said claim not later than four weeks thereafter after affording the Petitioner an opportunity of being heard. If aggrieved by such order, it would be open to the Petitioner to seek appropriate remedies in accordance with law." 4. The petitioner proceeded to file Form 21 for claim for refund, as required having regard to the statement of the DVAT's standing counsel, in its writ petition. 5. The company received a notice from the Additional VAT officer (hereafter "AVATO") for hearing under Section 34 of the Act. In response, its counsel appeared and pointed out that the limitation prescribed for scrutinizing documents had expired and that in the absence of an order under proviso to Section 34 and the time period not being extended, further enquiry could not be carried on. Despite this, the petitioner notices. The AVATO noted the arguments and proposed a refund of the amounts claimed without interest and sought the approval of the