Documentary co-relation supports refund of service tax on export transport despite missing invoice-level linkage.

Refund of service tax on GTA services used for export transport was held admissible where the documentary record showed a clear nexus between factory clearance, CFS movement, shipping bills, container numbers and the export consignment. The absence of the exporter's invoice number on the transporter's papers was not enough to defeat the claim when the overall co-relation established that the goods were moved for export and the tax-paid service was used for that purpose. The notification condition was treated as satisfied on a substantive, documentary basis, and refund could not be denied on a hyper-technical objection.

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Issues: Whether refund of service tax paid on GTA services used for transporting export goods could be denied for want of exact invoice-level correlation between the exporter's documents and the transporter's documents under Notification No. 52/2011-ST dated 30.12.2011.

Analysis: The documents produced showed a definite linkage between the factory clearance, CFS movement, shipping bill, container numbers, and export consignment. The absence of the appellants' invoice number on the transporter's documents, by itself, was held not sufficient to defeat the refund claim when the overall record established that the goods were cleared for export and the tax-paid transport service was used for that purpose. The condition in the notification was treated as satisfied through such co-relation, and the refund benefit could not be denied on a hyper-technical approach.

Conclusion: The refund claim was held admissible and the denial of refund was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The impugned orders were set aside and the refund relief was granted with consequential benefits.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the export linkage and use of tax-paid transport services are established by documentary co-relation, refund cannot be refused merely because one document does not repeat every identifying particulars.

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