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The petitioner is entitled to the refund of the amounts paid during investigation. Merely because an assessee has, under the stress of investigation, signed a statement admitting tax liability and has also made a few payments as per the statement, cannot lead to self-assessment or self-ascertainment.

Section 74(5) of the CGST Act, 2017—Deposits made during investigation -- The petitioner prayed for a mandamus restraining respondent from demanding any amount from the petitioner except by following the due process of law and a further direction to refund a sum of Rs. 2 crores along with statutory interest and return the documents seized at the time of search on 22.10.2019. An investigation was conducted in the premises of the petitioner on 22.10.2019 and various documents and registers seized. During the investigation, the petitioner deposited Rs. 2 Crores. The petitioner submitted that it has no liability to tax and he was forced to accept liability to tax and the admission was, by no means, voluntary. The respondent submitted that the petitioner has been engaging in large scale tax evasion and the remittances made by him during investigation in terms of Section 74(5) amount to ‘self- ascertainment’. The court observed for self ascertainment under section 74(5), the assessee must accept the ascertainment made by it and the revenue has applied its mind and arrived at the position that the self-ascertainment by the assessee is inadequate. But in this case the petitioner has consistently and vehemently contested the liability to tax. Thus, the requirement of ‘ascertainment’ under Section 74(5), fails. Merely because an assessee has, under the stress of investigation, signed a statement admitting tax liability and has also made a few payments as per the statement, cannot lead to self-assessment or self-ascertainment. The ascertainment contemplated under Section 74(5) is of the nature of self-assessment and amounts to a determination by it which is unconditional, and not one that is retracted as in the present case. Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court allowed the Petition and directed that amount of Rs. 2.00 crores collected shall be refunded to the petitioner within a period of four (4) weeks.
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