SAD refund under Notification 102/2007-Cus. cannot be denied solely for missing invoice endorsement if other conditions are met.

Refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/2007-Cus. could not be denied solely because commercial invoices lacked the endorsement that credit of the additional duty was not admissible. The settled position, as followed from the Larger Bench ruling, is that a trader-importer who paid SAD and discharged VAT or sales tax on subsequent sale remains entitled to the exemption if the other notification conditions are satisfied. The absence of the invoice endorsement by itself does not defeat the refund claim where substantive compliance is otherwise established.

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Issues: Whether refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/2007-Cus. could be denied merely because the commercial invoices did not contain the endorsement that credit of the additional duty was not admissible.

Analysis: The refund claim arose under Notification No. 102/2007-Cus., which grants exemption subject to specified conditions, including an invoice indication that credit of the additional duty levied under section 3(5) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 is not admissible. The Tribunal followed the Larger Bench ruling which held that a trader-importer who had paid SAD and discharged VAT or sales tax on subsequent sale would remain entitled to the exemption even if the commercial invoices did not contain that endorsement, so long as the other conditions of the notification were satisfied. The issue was therefore covered by the settled legal position already laid down by the Larger Bench.

Conclusion: The denial of refund on the sole ground of absence of the invoice endorsement was not sustainable, and the assessee was entitled to the refund benefit.

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