Special Additional Duty refund cannot be denied for a clerical short claim when full Bill of Entry quantity was sold.

A refund claim for Special Additional Duty was discussed in the context of an importer who had sold the entire quantity covered by the Bill of Entry and had made only a lower initial claim because of a clerical mistake. The text states that the refund notification allowed repayment where the goods were subsequently sold on payment of appropriate VAT, and that the Board circular relied on by Revenue applied only to cases involving part-quantity sales and part claims. On that basis, the circular did not bar the balance claim, and the denial of the remaining refund was described as unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the appellant was entitled to the balance refund of Special Additional Duty despite having claimed a lesser amount earlier due to a clerical mistake, and whether the Board circular restricting refund to one claim barred the balance claim.

Analysis: The refund notification entitled the importer to refund of Special Additional Duty where the goods were subsequently sold on payment of appropriate VAT. The circular relied on by the Revenue applied to cases where only part of the quantity covered by a Bill of Entry was sold and refund was claimed only for that part. Here, the entire quantity covered by the Bill of Entry had been sold, and the earlier lower claim was only an inadvertent clerical error supported by a certificate. Since the appellant had otherwise satisfied the conditions for refund of the full duty paid, the circular did not justify denial of the remaining amount.

Conclusion: The appellant was entitled to the balance refund of Rs. 1 lakh, and the rejection of the claim was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the refund denial was set aside in favour of the appellant.

Ratio Decidendi: A refund claim under the SAD refund notification cannot be denied for a balance amount where the importer had fulfilled the substantive conditions for refund and the short claim arose only from a clerical mistake; a circular limiting refund to part quantities does not apply when the entire Bill of Entry quantity has been sold.

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