Whether Officer under SGST can pass assessment order for IGST? Whether single order can be passed for SGST, CGST and IGST? : High Court answers

The one of the issue under consideration before High Court in this case is,

1. Whether one single Assessment Order can be passed for IGST, CGST and SGST?

2. Whether the very same officer (under SGST) can pass the Assessment Order for IGST also?

In order to answer the jurisdiction of the authorities to pass the Assessment Order under IGST, Section 4 of the IGST Act, would solve the issue. It would be appropriate to extract the same, which is as under:

“4. Authorisation of officers of State tax or Union territory tax as proper officer in certain circumstances.

Without prejudice to the provisions of this Act, the officers appointed under the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act are authorised to be the proper officers for the purposes of this Act, subject to such exceptions and conditions as the Government shall, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, specify.”

This Section, inter alia, contemplates that, the Officers appointed under the SGST Act are authorised to be the proper officers for the purposes of this Act, subject to such exceptions and conditions as the Government shall, on the recommendations of the Council notify. In the absence of any notification being placed on record, exempting the first Respondent from passing assessment order, it can be said, without any hesitation, that the Officer, who is competent to pass assessment under SGST, is also competent to assess the case of the assessee under IGST Act. In view of the above, it cannot be said that, the first Respondent is not competent to assess the case of the Petitioner under IGST Act.

The other issue, which remains consideration, is whether a single Assessment Order can be passed for IGST, SGST and CGST?

It is to be noted that, except stating that single Assessment Order could not have been passed, no provision under law debarring the Authority from following such procedure has been placed on record by the petitioner.

Further, the prejudice that is caused in passing single Assessment Order is also not shown. Apart from that, neither IGST nor CGST Act, anywhere prohibit making a single assessment under both the enactments. When the same Officer is authorized to assess the case of the dealer under IGST and SGST, we feel that there is nothing wrong in single assessment being made unless grave prejudice is show, which is not, in the case on hand. In-fact, the prejudice does not even appear to be inherent also in passing the single assessment order.

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Jurisdiction

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