Tax retained without a show cause notice was treated as illegal...

Tax retained without a show cause notice was treated as illegal ab initio, because the amount had been paid only on departmental direction and no lawful demand or appropriation ever existed. The Tribunal also accepted that the assessee's annual receipts were below the taxable threshold, so no service tax was payable in the first place, and the earlier refusal of refund could not be sustained. Applying Supreme Court principles on delayed refunds, it held that statutory interest could not be postponed to the later refund order and directed interest at 6% per annum from the date of payment until refund, with the Revenue to compute and pay it.

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