Comments
Kerala High Court has upheld that E-way bill is not required for transportation of used personal vehicles. E-way bill is required to be generated by a registered GST taxpayer for movement of goods if the value of the consignment is more than ₹50,000 for inter-State movement. For intra-State movement, limits vary from State to State.
The issue here was purchase of a ‘Range Rover’ motor vehicle for which IGST (Integrated Goods & Services Tax) was paid. It was given a temporary registration apart from motor vehicle insurance. Now, there were two options, either drive the vehicle across State borders or transport from Coimbatore to Thiruvananthapuram. Finally, the second option was applied. However, it was detained by State GST official on the ground that there was no E-way bill.
This action was challenged before the single judge bench, which quashed the detention and ordered release of the vehicle. Aggrieved by this, tax department appealed before a division bench. The bench recalled a decision by the Court in a similar matter related with KUN Motor Company.
In that ruling, the bench had said, “We do not understand how the State could take a contention that if the car had been driven into the State of Kerala from the UT of Puthuchery (Puducherry), then there could not have been a detention under Section 129, since then there would have been no question of uploading of E-way bill. We cannot also comprehend how an intra-State sale would be converted to an inter-State sale merely for reasons of it being transported in carriage.”
The bench had further said that the incidence of tax is on the supply and not on the nature of transport. “There is no distinction in so far, as the IGST Act is concerned, of a supply by road or on a carriage,” it had said while adding that even the vehicle used for a negligible run, it will have used personal effect. It had also highlighted the fact that the vehicle was registered in the name of the purchase.
The bench said that the present matter is similar to that in said ruling, except for the change in place from Puthuchery to Coimbatore. It also reminded that goods that are classifiable as used personal and household are exempted from the requirement of E-way bill under the GST law. Accordingly, it rejected the appeal by the tax department.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.