Refund of accumulated Cenvat credit cannot be denied on remand by reopening entitlement beyond the remand scope.

Refund of accumulated Cenvat credit under Rule 5 cannot be denied on remand by reopening entitlement when the earlier appellate order had already held the refund admissible and confined remand to quantification. The authority on remand must act within that limited mandate and verify the claim on the record produced; it cannot reject the refund on fresh merits, such as the use of an average basis or alleged lack of correlation between inputs and export clearances, where the records support the claim. Accumulated, unutilised credit remains refundable when the prescribed documents are furnished. The denial of refund was therefore unsustainable and the refund claim was allowed.

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Issues: Whether refund of accumulated Cenvat credit under Rule 5 could be denied after remand on the ground that the claim was made on an average basis and that the assessee had not correlated specific inputs to specific export clearances.

Analysis: The appeal arose after the Tribunal had earlier held that refund under Rule 5 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2002 was admissible and had remanded the matter only for quantification on the basis of the records. In the remand proceedings, the appellant produced the documents required for verification and the jurisdictional officers reported that the refund calculation on average basis was in order. The impugned order nonetheless refused relief by revisiting the entitlement itself, although the earlier remand had not authorised a fresh denial of refund on merits. The order therefore travelled beyond the scope of the Tribunal's directions. Refund under Rule 5, read with the enabling credit provisions and the governing notification, is to be granted where accumulated credit remains unutilised and the claim is supported by the records.

Conclusion: The denial of refund was unsustainable. The appellant was entitled to refund of the accumulated credit, and the appeal was allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where refund under Rule 5 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2002 has already been held admissible and a matter is remanded only for quantification, the authority on remand cannot deny the refund by reopening entitlement on grounds beyond the remand scope; accumulated credit is refundable if unutilised and supported by records.

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