Statutory refund limitation bars service tax refund claims filed beyond one year, even where mistake of law is pleaded.

Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 applies to service tax refunds through section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994, so a claim must be filed within one year from the relevant date, taken here as the date of tax payment. A refund claim for service tax paid on Goods Transport Agency services was therefore held time-barred when filed after that period. The plea that payment under a mistake of law displaced the statutory limitation was rejected, and earlier pre-amendment authorities were treated as inapplicable. The refund rejection was restored and the limitation bar upheld.

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Issues: Whether the refund claim of service tax paid on Goods Transport Agency services was barred by limitation under section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 as applied to service tax, and whether the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) allowing refund could stand.

Analysis: Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 applies to service tax by virtue of section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994. The relevant date for the refund claim was the date of payment of service tax, and the claim was filed after expiry of one year from that date. The contention that refund was not governed by section 11B because the tax was paid by mistake of law was rejected in view of the amended statutory scheme and the binding principles that refund claims must be made only under the prescribed limitation. The reliance on pre-amendment authorities was held to be misplaced, and the controlling position was taken from the later Supreme Court authorities on statutory refund limitation.

Conclusion: The refund claim was time-barred and the order allowing refund was unsustainable; the finding is against the assessee and in favour of the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: The appellate tribunal restored the original rejection of refund and upheld the statutory bar of limitation for the service tax refund claim.

Ratio Decidendi: A refund of tax or duty governed by the statutory refund provision must be claimed strictly within the prescribed limitation period, and a plea of mistake of law does not override that limitation where the refund provision applies.

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