Service of GST notice via email, Valid or not ?

Service of GST notice via email

Service of notice is an important part of adjudication. The right of being heard can be ensured only by communicating the notice. There are various ways to serve a notice. It can be sent via mail to the registered address. But in modern scenarios when most of the proceedings are going faceless. Is it sufficient to send it via email? What if the taxpayer misses that email?

Let us start with what the law says about it. Section 169(1)(c) & (d) gives this right to the tax authorities to deliver the notice via email. It says that a notice can be served on the email provided by the taxpayer at the time of registration.

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Legal precedents for Service of GST notice via email

In favor of Service of GST notice via email

Yes, there is confusion and ambiguity. There are case laws for the favor but then there are also against it. In the case of K.U.NIYAS Vs the Assistant Commissioner, The Kerala high court observed that a notice can be delivered via sending it on an email.

In this case, notice was served to file the returns. The provisions of BJA of section 62 provides that if the return is filed within 30 days, then the assessment proceedings drops itself. But the taxpayer didn’t respond. Although a notice was served on him and sent via email and was also uploaded on the GSTN portal.

Then the recovery proceedings started. Then the taxpayer approached the court against the recovery proceedings. He said that he never received the notice of BJA.  A notice sent via email or uploaded on the GST portal is not a valid service of notice.

The court held that the authorities are right in sending the notice to the taxpayer via email and uploading it on the GST portal. It should be deemed to be the proper service of notice.

Against the Service of GST notice via email

In a recent case, the Madras high court has observed just the opposite. The court observed that it is not valid to deliver the notice in an email. More details of this case will be added later on. As we don’t have a copy of this judgment.

Thus it’s hard to decide the final outcome of this litigation. But then we need to take care of our safety and track the notices on a regular basis. We should check both, our email and portal at short intervals.

Some steps you should take to not to miss the Service of GST notice via email

Well, it can be expensive to miss the notice from the department. here some tips to keep track.

• Instead of your consultant, it is better to post your own email id. but yes if you are too busy to check the regular email, let your advisor add his own email. As they keep checking it on regular basis.
• Put a forward on emails from department to 2-3 important email ids.
• Check your portal regularly on GSTN.
• Move the emails from the department from social or update tabs to the inbox.