Manufacturer-exporter refund in Form A-1 cannot be denied for routing the claim through the registered office.

A manufacturer-exporter claiming refund under Notification No. 17/2009-ST was required to file Form A-1 before the jurisdictional Central Excise authority for the factory of manufacture. The filing of the claim through the registered office, rather than directly through the factory unit, did not change the claimant's status as a manufacturer-exporter where the claim related to the manufacturing unit. Because the essential conditions of the notification were complied with and exports were undisputed, the procedural objection was treated as merely technical and insufficient to deny refund relief.

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Issues: Whether the respondent, being a manufacturer-exporter, was entitled to claim refund in Form A-1 under Notification No. 17/2009-ST dated 07.07.2009 and whether filing the claim through the registered office instead of the factory unit disentitled the refund.

Analysis: The exemption notification distinguished between a manufacturer-exporter registered as an assessee under the Central Excise Act, 1944 and a non-manufacturer-exporter. For a manufacturer-exporter, the prescribed mode was to seek refund in Form A-1 before the jurisdictional Central Excise authority over the factory of manufacture. The respondent was found to be a manufacturing unit and the claim, though routed through the registered office, related to the manufacturing unit. The filing route did not alter the respondent's status as a manufacturer-exporter, and the essential conditions of the notification were held to have been complied with. The objection raised by the Revenue was treated as purely technical and insufficient to defeat a refund where export was undisputed.

Conclusion: The respondent was rightly entitled to file the refund claim in Form A-1, and the refund could not be denied on the ground urged by the Revenue.

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