Facts of the Case

S K Granites, a registered proprietary concern, was served with an assessment order dated 23.06.2025 passed by the Assistant Commissioner of State Taxes, Tadipatri Circle, covering a consolidated period from 2021-22 to 2023-24, with a consequential Form GST DRC-07 of the same date. The petitioner challenged the assessment as being in gross violation of natural justice and, more particularly, as an impermissible composite order covering more than one assessment year in a single proceeding. While several grounds were urged, the petitioner pressed primarily the ground that a single composite order covering multiple financial years could not have been passed under the GST Act.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether a single assessment order can validly be passed for more than one financial year under Section 73 or Section 74 of the GST Act, 2017.
  2. Whether, in light of the Division Bench ruling in W.P.No.11028 of 2025 & batch, the impugned composite order is liable to be set aside with liberty to proceed year-wise.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • A single assessment order passed for more than one financial year is violative of Sections 73 and 74 of the GST Act, 2017.
  • The petitioner pressed this ground as the primary basis for challenge, while reserving other grounds of natural justice and DIN-related irregularities.

Respondent's Arguments

  • The Government Pleader for Commercial Tax appeared for the respondents; no separate defence is recorded distinguishing the binding effect of the Division Bench's batch ruling on composite assessment orders.

Court Order / Findings

  • The Court noted that a Division Bench of the High Court, in W.P.No.11028 of 2025 & batch, had already held that a single show-cause notice or composite assessment order cannot be passed for more than one tax period — a month, if assessment is taken up before the due date for filing the annual return, or a year, once that due date has passed.
  • The writ petition was disposed of on this ground, setting aside the assessment order dated 23.06.2025, leaving other grounds open and permitting the respondents to initiate fresh proceedings for each assessment year separately.
  • The period from the impugned order until receipt of the present order was excluded for computing limitation; no costs were awarded.

Important Clarification

  • A composite show-cause notice or assessment order clubbing multiple financial years/tax periods under Section 73 or Section 74 of the CGST/APGST Act is impermissible; each tax period, once the annual return due date has passed, requires its own separate notice and order.
  • Setting aside such a composite order on this technical ground does not preclude the Department from proceeding afresh, year by year, and the limitation clock is tolled for the intervening period.

Sections Involved

  • Section 73, CGST/APGST Act, 2017 — determination of tax not paid or short paid for non-fraud reasons.
  • Section 74, CGST/APGST Act, 2017 — determination of tax involving fraud or suppression.

Decision – In Favour of

Assessee, on the composite-order ground; disposed of with liberty to the Department to proceed year-wise, other grounds left open.

Case Details

High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Amaravati; W.P.No.36784 of 2025; Coram: Hon'ble Sri Justice R. Raghunandan Rao and Hon'ble Sri Justice T.C.D. Sekhar; Order dated 31.12.2025.

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