Pr. None for Complainant

Pr. Vashisht Proxy counsel for the OP

The Complainant has filed this Complaint alleging unfair Trade Practice of OP alleging that the OP is charging double the GST. The case of the Complainant is that the MRP of the said product is Rs. 399/- which is inclusive of all the taxes and the opposite party in order to promote the sale of the articles offered a discount of 50% on the MRP on the said product. That after giving 50% discount on the product that price of the product came to Rs. 199.50/- which is incluisive of all taxes but in addition thereto the opposite party charged GST @ 5% ( Central GST 2.5% which come to Rs. 4.99/- and State GST 2.5% which come to Rs. 4.99/- on the discounted price of the product which amount to Rs. 9.98/- and complainant had to pay Rs. 209/- (round off) for the consideration amount of said product.

We initially issued notice in the matter and also directed the Commissioner GST New Delhi to examine the allegation of the Complainant. The report of the Assistant Commissioner (Ward-206) is on record. OP has filed its reply and denied the allegation made by the Complainant. Thereafter, the Complainant has stopped appearing in this matter and it appears that Complainant is not interested in pursuing the complaint. Hence, the complaint filed by the Complainant is dismissed, however, as the issue involved in the matter is on the calculation of GST, and we have made following observations :

1.            The report submitted by the Assistant Commissioner Ward 206, indicated that the OP herein has filed the correct GST amount in accordance with the section 12 of the GST Act. However, the issue involve in the particularly with the Government is not that whether the Op has deposited the correct amount or not but the OP has collected the appropriate amount from the Complainant or not. In our opinion GST collected by the OP is not collected correctly.

2.            The MRP is indicated on every product and it is a statutory obligation for seller to indicate the MRP inclusive of all taxes under the provision of the Legal Metrology Act 2009. Hence, the MRP in this case Rs. 399/- indicated that price tag of the product is inclusive of 5% GST as applicable on the product. When the OP offered the discount of 50%, in our opinion in order to calculate the correct amount of GST. OP has to first determine the net price of the product on 50% discount is to be offered on the net price and then GST is to be added again on the discounted price.

In the case in hand the GST applicable to the product is 5% and the MRP is Rs. 399/- inclusive of all taxes. The price is Rs. 380/- and GST 5% is Rs.19/-. Hence,  the 50% discount offered by the OP should be on Rs. 380/- and Hence discounted net Price in this case would be Rs. 190/- hence now the 5% GST then the 5% GST is to be added on the net discounted price. The GST on the net discounted price would be Rs. 9.5/-. Hence, the discounted price should be Rs. 190+9.50 = Rs. 199.50/-(round off Rs. 200/-).

However, the OP has not determine the net price of the product and has considered the MRP as the net price while calculating the GST on the discounted MRP. The calculation done by the OP, in our opinion is not correct and the OP has charged the additional sum of Rs. 9/- on the Bill amount of Rs. 209/- actual amount of Rs. 200/- from the Consumer. This is a clear case of Unfair Trade Practice and therefore we direct the OP to adopt the correct procedure to calculate the GST on discounted price of the product and the report compliance about the above direction to Commissioner GST within the period of 4 weeks from the receipt of this order. Commissioner GST is also directed to insure that the GST charged by the OP from the consumer is to be calculated properly in according to the GST Act and the OP has not charged the GST amount more than the amount was prescribed under the provision of the GST Act. We dismiss off this. Copy of the order be given Dasti.