SAD refund claims cannot be rejected for invoice-description mismatch when auditor certificates establish import-sale correlation.

Refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/2007-Cus. could not be denied solely because the Bill of Entry description differed from the sale invoices, where Chartered Accountant certificates correlated the imported goods with the goods sold. The notification required evidence of domestic sale and payment of VAT/Sales Tax, and the binding circular accepted documentary proof of tax payment together with a statutory auditor's correlation certificate. As the lower authorities did not examine the certificates and relied only on the description mismatch, that discrepancy was held insufficient to reject the refund claim.

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Issues: Whether refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/2007-Cus. could be denied merely because of variation in description between the Bill of Entry and the sale invoices, despite Chartered Accountant certificates correlating the imported goods and the goods sold.

Analysis: The notification required proof of domestic sale and payment of appropriate VAT/Sales Tax on the imported goods. The binding circular clarified that documentary evidence of VAT/Sales Tax payment and a certificate from the statutory auditor correlating the imports with the sales invoices would suffice. The Chartered Accountant certificates produced by the appellants were not examined by the lower authorities, and the rejection was based only on a description mismatch. Such a discrepancy, without rebuttal of the correlation certificate or contrary evidence, was held insufficient to deny the refund claim.

Conclusion: Refund could not be refused on the sole ground of a variation in description between the import documents and the sale invoices when the correlation of the goods was by auditor certificates. The appeals were allowed in favour of the assessee.

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