The excise and Taxation Department of Haryana has requested SpiceJet Ltd to clear Goods and Services Tax dues of Rs 285.86 crore after rejecting the airline’s proposal to clear its admitted dues in instalments, as per a September 10 order of the tax authority.
According to the order, SpiceJet owes Rs 163.22 crore in ahead cost legal responsibility and a reverse cost legal responsibility of Rs 122.64 crore from 2019-20 until September 7, 2021, to the Haryana authorities.
In an e-mail response to queries, the spokesperson for SpiceJet mentioned, “The GST outstanding amount mentioned in your query is completely wrong and baseless. The outstanding amount, as has been widely reported in the media, is Rs 80 crore. The outstanding amount is mainly under reverse charge mechanism and not something which the company has collected and not paid and your query on that count is completely wrong and we strongly deny it.”
The firm mentioned the High Court had noticed that SpiceJet’s plea for paying dues in instalments is a good one because the operations had been curtailed attributable to Covid pandemic. “The matter is pending adjudication before the court.It should be noted that SpiceJet has already progressed on the payment of GST liabilities as per the plan submitted by the company demonstrating its bonafide,” the airline added.
In July, the tax authority issued a discover to SpiceJet, asking it to clear its dues. However, the airline approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court with a plea to quash the tax discover and permit them to clear dues in instalments.
On August 17, the High Court handed an order, asking the Excise Department to listen to the compensation proposal of the airline and go a talking order within the case inside two weeks of receiving the licensed copy of the High Court ruling. Subsequently, the tax authority allowed private hearings to the airline on August 31 and September 7 and three days later, on September 10, the tax company turned down the cost proposal of SpiceJet.
The tax order mentioned SpiceJet, in its illustration to the Department on September 7, proposed to “discharge the total estimated liability of Rs 285.86 crore up to September 2021, which includes reverse charge liability of Rs 122.64 crore and forward charge liability of Rs 163.22 crore”.
The tax order added that of the Rs 163.33 crore ahead cost legal responsibility admitted by SpiceJet, the corporate has declared solely Rs 128.53 crore in its returns.
“I find that the liability of Rs 34.69 crore has been collected but not declared by the applicant in Form GSTR -1,” mentioned the order.
The order added, “I find that the power to pay in instalments is provided under Section 80 of the HGST (Haryana GST) Act, 2017 … On a close reading of the said Section, it is clear that the Section does not enable the payment of tax liability in instalments in cases where the tax liability is due as per the liability declared by the taxpayer in any return. Herein, I find that the applicant has self assessed and declared an amount of Rs 128.53 crore in the form GSTR-1 … but the same has not been discharged either through cash or input tax credit in Form GSTR-3.Therefore, I find that I have no statutory power under HGST Act, 2017 to provide for instalments for such amount.”
The order mentioned the financial institution assure provided by SpiceJet below the compensation proposal isn’t “an adequate collateral or guarantee in the event of default”.
Under the HGST norms, extension of time for cost of taxes is allowed just for liabilities that haven’t been self-assessed by the taxpayer in any tax returns.
