Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday issued notice to the Haryana government on a plea against imposition of Covid cess on the sale of liquor in the state.
While fixing the matter for July 10, the HC asked the state government to inform as to why its decision on Covid cess should not be stayed on the next date of hearing.
The division bench, comprising Justice Daya Chaudhary and Justice Meenakshi Mehta, passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by M/s Haryana Wines, a retailer in Haryana, challenging the imposition of Covid cess by Haryana by amending the excise policy that had been acted upon.
The petitioner pointed out that the imposition of cess is not only without jurisdiction in law but also couldn’t be applicable to vends already allotted in March 2020.
Counsel for the petitioner Chetan Mittal submitted that the state had brought the amendment in the excise policy after the state accepted the petitioner’s bid, thus the state cannot unilaterally change the conditions of the excise policy.
“Even otherwise the Covid cess has been imposed on transaction by retailer and on the retailer irrespective of there being any further sale or not. It was further pointed out that all taxes are included in the price fixed in the excise policy by the distillery.
The distillery while calculating the price has to pay to the government taxes like excise duty, VAT, TCS etc, which is the first point of sale to the wholesaler,” argued the counsel.
HC was also informed that even the Chandigarh administration has imposed Covid cess to be paid at the first point of sale i.e. on the wholesaler applicable with effect from July 1, 2020. In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the Haryana government had amended its excise policy in the first week of May and announced a Covid-cess on liquor.
While fixing the matter for July 10, the HC asked the state government to inform as to why its decision on Covid cess should not be stayed on the next date of hearing.
The division bench, comprising Justice Daya Chaudhary and Justice Meenakshi Mehta, passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by M/s Haryana Wines, a retailer in Haryana, challenging the imposition of Covid cess by Haryana by amending the excise policy that had been acted upon.
The petitioner pointed out that the imposition of cess is not only without jurisdiction in law but also couldn’t be applicable to vends already allotted in March 2020.
Counsel for the petitioner Chetan Mittal submitted that the state had brought the amendment in the excise policy after the state accepted the petitioner’s bid, thus the state cannot unilaterally change the conditions of the excise policy.
“Even otherwise the Covid cess has been imposed on transaction by retailer and on the retailer irrespective of there being any further sale or not. It was further pointed out that all taxes are included in the price fixed in the excise policy by the distillery.
The distillery while calculating the price has to pay to the government taxes like excise duty, VAT, TCS etc, which is the first point of sale to the wholesaler,” argued the counsel.
HC was also informed that even the Chandigarh administration has imposed Covid cess to be paid at the first point of sale i.e. on the wholesaler applicable with effect from July 1, 2020. In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the Haryana government had amended its excise policy in the first week of May and announced a Covid-cess on liquor.
