Claiming of Cenvat Credit before registration

[THYAGARAJAN KALYANASUNDARAM]

Dear Experts,

We note that the Hon'ble Karnataka High Court ,in the Case Law, mPortal India Wireless Solutions (P) Ltd. Vs. CST-= 2011 (9) TMI 450 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURT = 2012 (27) STR 134 (Kar.), has discussed an identical issue and it was decided that Service Tax Registration is not mandatory for refund of accumulated Cenvat Credit of service tax paid on input services used for export of services.

I already posted a query (Issue ID :108969) to which i got clarifications stating that refund can only be claimed for registered premises and Centralized Registration is required for availing the Cenvat credit for the Head Office and for its branches.

With reference to the above Judgement, why do we have to get our branches registered for the sake of refund while we are 100% service exporter and are not liable for service tax at all?

[Rajagopalan Ranganathan]

Sir,

In my opinion exported services are not exempted service. They are liable to pay service tax but for their exportation the service provider need not pay the service tax. Only service providers of services listed in Section 66D of Finance Act, 1994 (Negative List) and exempted under notification NO. 25/2012-ST dated 20.6.2012 as amended need not get registered. Since the exported services are not exempted services, the exporter of service need to get registered with the department. When the Finance Act, 1994 or service Tax rules, 1994 are not exempting exporter of service from getting registered. In my opinion, neither CESTAT or H.C. cannot substitute the legal provisions and they are empowered to interpret the legal provisions.

AI Summary

Registration requirement for service providers may be necessary to claim cenvat credit refund for exported services. Whether service tax registration is a prerequisite to claim refund or utilization of accumulated Cenvat credit for input services used in exported services: one authority suggests registration is not mandatory for refund of accumulated credit from exported services, while the advisory stresses that exported services are not exempt from the statutory registration requirement and that centralized registration may be necessary for head office and branches to avail credits and refunds.