Refund of excise duty is available only to the duty-paying person; purchasers lacked locus standi to claim it.

Refund of excise duty is maintainable only by the person who actually paid the duty to the revenue, unless the statutory framework expressly transfers that entitlement. Here, the buyers of furnace oil had not paid the duty to the Department; the manufacturer had done so. The exemption notification was conditional and required compliance with the Chapter X procedure, but that did not confer refund rights on the purchasers. The Tribunal therefore held that the purchasers had no locus standi to seek refund or maintain the appeal, and the preliminary objection to maintainability was rightly upheld.

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Issues: Whether the buyers of furnace oil had locus standi to claim refund of excise duty paid by the manufacturer and to maintain the appeal before the Tribunal.

Analysis: The exemption notification was conditional and required compliance with the Chapter X procedure. The duty in question was admittedly paid to the excise authorities by the manufacturer and not by the appellants. The legal principle applied was that a refund claim lies only with the person who has paid the duty and is the proper aggrieved person, unless the statutory scheme shifts both liability and refund entitlement to another person. The Court distinguished cases concerning unjust enrichment, observing that those decisions did not assist the appellants because they were neither the duty-paying assessee nor the ultimate consumers of the goods.

Conclusion: The appellants had no locus standi to seek refund or to pursue the appeal, and the preliminary objection was rightly upheld.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed at the threshold because the refund claim was not maintainable by the purchasers who had not paid the duty to the Department.

Ratio Decidendi: A refund of excise duty is maintainable only by the person who has actually paid the duty to the revenue, unless the statutory framework expressly transfers that entitlement.

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