This appeal has been filed under Section 107 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”) by Sh.Gurpreet Singh Madaan, E-133, Bhiwadi Industrial Area, Alwar-301019  (Raj) (hereinafter also referred to as the “appellant”) against the Order No.ZA0812200002486 dated 01.12.2020 (hereinafter referred to as the “impugned order”) passed by the Assistant Commissioner, Central Goods and Service Tax Division-C, Bhiwadi, Alwar (hereinafter referred to as the “adjudicating authority/Proper Officer”).

Brief facts of the case:

2. Brief facts of the case are that the Proper Officer has cancelled the GSTIN of Sh.Gurpreet Singh Madaan, E-133, Bhiwadi Industrial Area, Alwar-301019 having GSTIN 08AAUPM6494Q1ZC due to non filing of returns for a continuous period of six months. The application for revocation of cancellation of registration has been also rejected due to non submission of reply to the show cause notice reference No.ZA081020318970W dated 22.10.2020 within the time specified therein.

3. Being aggrieved with the impugned order, the appellant has filed the appeal on the following grounds which may be summarized as under:-

• -that the order of the Assessing Officer is erroneous on the facts and in the law. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case he ought to have accepted the application of revocation of cancellation of registration.
• -that the Learned Assessing Officer has not provided last opportunity to the appellant to explain its case and passed the cancellation order in hurry. Therefore, principle of natural justice violated and rejected the revocation application on arbitrary basis without considering the facts & circumstance of the case.
• -that the appellant already occupied in handling of his business, therefore could not give regular attention and time to this new business. Hence no business transactions started and meanwhile the said plot i.e. E-133, RIICO Industrial Area, Bhiwadi, give on rent to one of their family company M/s DEIEM India Pvt Ltd.,(08AAACD2989A1ZT).
• -that the appellant filed application for revocation of cancellation of registration on 30.09.2020 within extended time limit enhanced by the department after paying the due taxes (No business transactions hence no tax liability) and filling of pending returns till the date of cancellation registration. Further there is no revenue loss to the revenue by accepting the revocation application of the appellant.
• -that we want to submit that, the registration of appellant is cancelled in June-2020 due to reasons described above, if the appellant filed its revocation application in June 2020 after filling of returns from march- 2019 to June-2020 there will extra burden of late fee on the pocket of the appellant as MSME and also the covid-2019 pandemic is already taken place, which also negative effect on the business and economic all over the world. Further, an amnesty scheme regarding waiver of late fees on returns is demanded by the dealers all over the India through various bodies such CII/FIICE/ etc., That is why Govt announced such amnesty scheme on 24.06.2020 vide NN/52/2020-Central Tax dated 24.06.2020 and provided also that where the total amount of central tax payable in the said return is nil, the total amount of late fee payable for a tax period, under Section 47 of the said Act shall stand waived for the registered person who failed to furnish the return in Form GSTR 3B for the month of July-2019 to January-2020, by the due date but furnishes the said return between the period from Ist day of July-2020 to 30th day of September,2020. Therefore the appellant took benefits of such scheme and filed all the pending returns and also filed the application for revocation of cancellation of registration on 30.09.2020.

4. Personal hearing in virtual mode through video conference was held on 10.03.2021. Shri Rashid Mohammed, Chartered Accountant and Authorized Representative appeared for personal hearing on behalf of the appellant. He reiterated the grounds of appeal and explained the case in details. During personal hearing he further submitted that the appellant could not start business from the date of registration to till cancellation of registration but now he desire to start its business hence requested for revocation of registration. Further, he submitted that the appellant has filed all the pending returns till June-2020 since there was no business transaction from taking registration to till cancellation. There was no Govt due upon him and late fee was waived off vide Notification No.52/2020- Central Tax 24th June 2020. In view of submission he requested for early decision.

5. I have gone through the facts of the case and the written submissions made by the appellant in their appeal memo, also additional submission as well as also oral submission at the time of personal hearing and accordingly I proceeded for deciding the appeal.

6. I have carefully gone through the case records and written submission made in the appeal memo, additional submission as well as oral submission made at the time of personal hearing. I find that the adjudicating authority/proper officer has rejected the application for revocation of cancellation of registration through Form GST REG-05 as appellant did not file returns for a continuous period of six months and due to non submission of reply to the show cause notice reference No.ZA081020318970W dated 22.10.2020 within the time specified therein.

7. In this context, the appellant submitted in their written submission as well as at the time of hearing that appellant could not start business from the date of registration to till cancellation of registration but now he desire to start its business and has filed all the pending returns on 30.09.2020 and further stated that there was no business transaction from taking registration to till cancellation and there was no Govt due upon him

8. In this regard, the relevant provisions are as under:-

Rule 23 of the CGST Rules, 2017 regarding revocation of cancellation of registration provides as under:-

(1) A registered person, whose registration is cancelled by the proper officer on his own motion, may submit an application for revocation of cancellation of registration, in FORM GST REG-21*, to such proper officer, within a period of thirty days from the date of the service of the order of cancellation of registration at the common portal, either directly or through a Facilitation Centre notified by the Commissioner :

Provided that no application for revocation shall be filed, if the registration has been cancelled for the failure of the registered person to furnish returns, unless such returns are furnished and any amount due as tax, in terms of such returns, has been paid along with any amount payable towards interest, penalty and late fee in respect of the said returns.

[Provided further that all returns due for the period from the date of the order of cancellation of registration till the date of the order of revocation of cancellation of registration shall be furnished by the said person within a period of thirty days from the date of order of revocation of cancellation of registration :

Provided also that where the registration has been cancelled with retrospective effect, the registered person shall furnish all returns relating to period from the effective date of cancellation of registration till the date of order of revocation of cancellation of registration within a period of thirty days from the date of order of revocation of cancellation of registration.]

(2) (a) Where the proper officer is satisfied, for reasons to be recorded in writing, that there are sufficient grounds for revocation of cancellation of registration, he shall revoke the cancellation of registration by an order in FORM GST REG-22* within a period of thirty days from the date of the receipt of the application and communicate the same to the applicant.

(b) The proper officer may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, under circumstances other than those specified in clause (a), by an order in FORM GST REG-05*, reject the application for revocation of cancellation of registration and communicate the same to the applicant.

(3) The proper officer shall, before passing the order referred to in clause (b) of sub-rule (2), issue a notice in FORM GST REG-23* requiring the applicant to show cause as to why the application submitted for revocation under sub-rule (1) should not be rejected and the applicant shall furnish the reply within a period of seven working days from the date of the service of the notice in FORM GST REG-24*.

(4) Upon receipt of the information or clarification in FORM GST REG-24*, the proper officer shall proceed to dispose of the application in the manner specified in sub-rule (2) within a period of thirty days from the date of the receipt of such information or clarification from the applicant.

9. Further, I find that Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs, New Delhi has clarified the issue vide circular No.99/18/2019-GST dated 23.04.2019. Para 3 of said circular read as under:

3.“ First proviso to sub-rule (1) of the said Rules provides if the registration has been cancelled on account of failure of the registered person to furnish returns, no application for revocation of cancellation of registration shall be filed, unless such returns are furnished and any amount in terms of such returns is paid. Thus, where the registration has been cancelled with effect from the date of order of cancellation of registration, all returns due till the date of such cancellation are required to be furnished before the application for revocation can be filed. Further, in such cases, in terms of the second proviso to sub-rule (1) of rule 23 of the said Rules, all returns required to be furnished in respect of the period from the date of order of cancellation till the date of order of revocation of cancellation of registration have to be furnished within a period of thirty days from the date of the order of revocation.”

As per principal Notification No.76/2018-Central Tax, dated 31^st December-2018 amended by Notification No.52/2020 Central Tax dated 24th June 2020:

(ii) after the third proviso, the following provisos shall be inserted, namely :-

“Provided also that the total amount of late fee payable for a tax period, under section 47 of the said Act shall stand waived which is in excess of an amount of two hundred and fifty rupees for the registered person who failed to furnish the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the months of July, 2017 to January, 2020, by the due date but furnishes the said return between the period from 1st day of July, 2020 to 30th day of September, 2020 :

Provided also that where the total amount of central tax payable in the said return is nil, the total amount of late fee payable for a tax period, under section 47 of the said Act shall stand waived for the registered person who failed to furnish the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the months of July, 2017 to January, 2020, by the due date but furnishes the said return between the period from 1st day of July, 2020 to 30th day of September, 2020.”.

10. On going through the submission of the appellant as well as order passed by the proper office, I observed that the adjudicating authority has cancelled their registration due to non filing of GSTR-3B returns for the period Ist March-2019 to till date i.e. 10.06.2020 and effective date of cancellation of registration is 10.06.2020 whereas in the second proviso of Notification No.52/2020-Central Tax dated 24th June 2020 it is clearly stated that where the total amount of central tax payable in the said return is nil, the total amount of late fee payable for a tax period, under section 47 of the said Act shall stand waived for the registered person who failed to furnish the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the period of July, 2017 to January, 2020 (whereas, in the instant case the disputed period is till June-2020). In this context, I find that in terms of second proviso of amended vide Notification No.52/2020- Central Tax dated 24.06.2020 late fee is waived for the period July-2017 to January-2020 if the registered person furnish the returns between period from Ist July 2020 to 30th day of September- 2020.

In the instant case, I find that the appellant has filed his GSTR-1 and GSTR 3B on 30.09.2020. Further, on going through the records I observed that the appellant has not filed return upto June-2020 whereas, the benefit of notification with regard to waiver of late fee has been given in the said notification upto January-2020 only. In view of this facts, I find that the appellant did not deposited late fee for the period January-2020 onwards. I find that the appellant has not been complied with the proviso of the Rule 23 of CGST Rules, 2017. Therefore, in view of this I am the opinion that the cancellation of registration of appellant may not be considered for revocation. Accordingly, I reject the appeal of the appellant.

11. Accordingly, the appeal is disposed off in above manner.