Refund of service tax on ocean freight allowed where the levy under Notification No. 15/2017-ST was already held ultra vires.

Refund of service tax paid on ocean freight under Notification No. 15/2017-ST was claimed on the basis that the levy had already been held ultra vires in earlier rulings. The HC treated those prior decisions as binding on the identical facts and found no independent ground to refuse refund. The petitioner was therefore entitled to refund of the tax already paid, subject only to verification of the relevant payment details.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to refund of service tax paid pursuant to Notification No. 15/2017-ST in view of earlier decisions holding the levy ultra vires.

Analysis: The claim arose from service tax paid on ocean freight under the impugned notification. The same levy had already been held ultra vires in earlier decisions, and the Court treated the present case as governed by those binding rulings. On the admitted and identical facts, no independent ground was made out to deny refund, save for verification of the payment details.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to refund of the service tax already paid pursuant to Notification No. 15/2017-ST, subject to verification of the relevant details.

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