M/S. Ramniwas Agrawal vs. C.G. State Warehousing Corporation

Facts

The petitioner, M/s. Ramniwas Agrawal, has filed a writ petition before the High Court of Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur, against the C.G. State Warehousing Corporation and its officials. The petitioner's grievance is the inaction of the respondents in refunding the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collected from the petitioner during the execution of a contract. The contract was awarded to the petitioner under the GST regime with a 12% tax rate, which was subsequently increased to 18% effective July 18, 2022, while the works were still in progress. The petitioner alleges repeated attempts to approach the respondents for the refund have been met with inaction. The respondent Corporation, through its counsel, stated that the petitioner's claim would be decided at the earliest, subject to verification of facts.

Held

The High Court of Chhattisgarh disposed of the writ petition by directing the respondent authorities to immediately process the petitioner's claim for the refund of GST. This processing is to be conducted after due verification of the facts and the petitioner's entitlement. The Court emphasized that an appropriate decision should be taken, taking into account the petitioner's contention that similar GST refunds have been granted by other government departments. The Court set an outer limit of 90 days from the date of receipt of the order's copy for the respondents to take an appropriate decision. The Court did not explicitly leave any issue undecided.

Key Issues

1. Whether the respondent authorities are obligated to process and decide the petitioner's claim for refund of GST collected during the execution of the contract, considering the increase in the GST rate from 12% to 18%? The petitioner argued that the respondents have failed to take any action on their repeated requests for a refund of the GST amount collected during the contract execution. They contended that in similar cases involving other government departments such as PWD, PMGSY, NHAI, Railways, and CPWD, the government itself has refunded the GST. The petitioner relies on the principle that such claims should be processed and decided promptly. The respondents, through their counsel, submitted that they would decide the petitioner's claim at the earliest, subject to the verification of facts. No specific legal provisions or precedents were cited by the respondents in their argument.