Refund of unutilised CENVAT credit allowed where later debit and document verification issues required further examination.

Refund of accumulated and unutilised CENVAT credit was considered admissible where the claim was limited to the credit balance available at filing, and a later debit was not treated as fatal under para 2(h) of Notification No. 27/2012-CE (NT). The documentary discrepancies in the supporting vouchers required verification, but they did not by themselves defeat the claim. As the TRAN-1 return was filed as nil and no input credit was carried forward, the matter was remanded to the original authority to verify the documents relating to reversal of credit and grant refund to the extent found admissible.

---

---

Issues: Whether the appellant was entitled to refund of accumulated and unutilized CENVAT credit despite the debit of credit being made after filing the refund claim and despite discrepancies in the supporting vouchers and documents.

Analysis: The refund claim was restricted to the CENVAT credit balance actually available at the time of filing the claim. The requirement in para 2(h) of Notification No. 27/2012-CE (NT) was not treated as fatal where the credit was debited shortly thereafter, and the later debit voucher placed on record was not considered by the lower authorities. The record also showed that the TRAN-1 return was filed as nil and no input credit was carried forward, but the documentary correlation required verification at the original stage.

Conclusion: The appellant was held entitled to refund to the extent of Rs. 5,13,086/-, and the matter was remanded to the original authority for verification of the documents relating to reversal of credit.

---