GST budgetary support claim requires verification where a similarly situated unit may receive the same exemption-linked benefits.

A GST budgetary support claim may be examined under Notification No. 20/2007 and the clarification dated 22-02-2023 where a unit commenced commercial production after modernization within the notification period. The earlier coordinate Bench view treated units that had discharged tax dues through CENVAT credit, without reaching cash payment, as having availed the exemption benefit. Applying that precedent, the present claim was to be verified only to determine whether the petitioner was similarly situated, and if so, the same benefits were to follow.

---

---

Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to have its claim for GST budgetary support benefit considered in light of Notification No. 20/2007 and the clarification dated 22-02-2023, and whether, on verification, it should receive the same benefit as similarly situated units covered by the earlier coordinate Bench order.

Analysis: The petitioner's unit had commenced commercial production after modernization on 30-03-2017, which brought the claim within the temporal scope of the notification relied upon. The earlier coordinate Bench had already held, on the basis of the clarification dated 22-02-2023, that units who had paid tax dues under the earlier exemption arrangement through CENVAT credit, but had not yet reached the stage of cash payment, were to be treated as having availed the benefit of the exemption notification. In view of that precedent and the parties' consensus, the present claim required verification only to ascertain whether the petitioner was similarly situated.

Conclusion: The petitioner was not granted an unconditional direction for release of benefit, but was entitled to verification of its claim and, if found similarly situated, to the same benefits as those granted in the coordinate Bench decision.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was disposed of with a direction for verification and consequential extension of benefits upon satisfaction of the similarity test.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a later clarification and an earlier coordinate Bench ruling treat certain industrial units as having availed exemption benefits, a similarly situated unit is entitled to verification and consequential extension of the same benefits.

---