Refund of service tax credit available as on 30.6.2017

[Lalitha Krishnamurthy]

Our client providing Business Support service had unutilized credit of service tax as on 30.6.2017, because of exports and was desirous of claiming refund of the same.He did not carry it forward to the opening balance of GST credit on 1.7.2017 because of the provisions of Section 142(3) of the CGST Act, which contains the following proviso:

"Provided further that no refund shall be allowed of any amount of CENVAT credit where the balance of the said amount as on the appointed day has been carried forward under this Act".

When he applied for refund of the accumulated Cenvat credit, under Notification no. 27/2012- CE(NT) dated 18.6.2012, it was rejected on the sole ground that the said amount has not been debited from the assesee's CENVAT credit account as required under the said Notification. Neither the adjudicating Authority nor the first appellate authority appreciated the fact that since the credit was not formally carried forward, it could not be formally debited also. But the availability of credit is not in dispute since the same is reflected in the Service Tax return for the period ending 30.6.2017.

Would appreciate the experts' advice on the grounds to be taken in the second appeal.

AI Summary

Refund of accumulated service tax credit blocked by procedural non-debit; tribunal appeal and transitional filing options discussed
The dispute concerns refund of accumulated CENVAT credit not carried forward into GST; the refund claim under the pre-GST notification was rejected solely because the amount had not been formally debited from the assessee's CENVAT account, despite the credit being reflected in the service tax return as on the appointed day.