Excess payment on export freight and insurance is not rebate-eligible duty; transitional refund rules do not convert it into cash refund.

Amounts paid in excess of the duty legally payable on exported goods, including freight and insurance payments beyond the duty liability, do not acquire the character of rebate-eligible duty and are treated as voluntary deposits. The proper treatment is re-credit in the Cenvat account rather than cash rebate. The transitional refund provision under the CGST framework was considered inapplicable to convert such excess payment into a cash refund, because claims arising under the earlier regime had to be resolved under the existing legal framework. Accordingly, cash refund of the excess amount was rejected and the re-credit was upheld.

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Issues: Whether rebate was admissible in cash on the amount paid in excess of duty towards freight and insurance charges on exported goods, and whether Section 142(3) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 entitled the applicant to cash refund of the amount re-credited to the Cenvat account.

Analysis: The rebate claim related only to duty actually payable on the exported goods. The amount paid on freight and insurance beyond the duty liability did not acquire the character of duty and was only a voluntary deposit. Such excess payment could not be rebated in cash, and the proper course was restoration in the Cenvat credit account. The transitional provision in Section 142(3) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was held inapplicable to convert that excess amount into a cash refund, as refund claims under the existing law had to be dealt with under the existing legal framework.

Conclusion: The claim for cash refund of the excess amount was rejected, and the re-credit of the amount to the Cenvat account was upheld.

Final Conclusion: The revision application failed because only duty legally payable on export goods was refundable, while the excess amount paid on freight and insurance remained outside the scope of cash rebate and was not brought within the transitional refund route.

Ratio Decidendi: Amounts paid in excess of the duty legally payable on export goods do not become rebate-eligible duty and, in transitional matters, refund must be governed by the existing law rather than converted into cash merely because of Section 142 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

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