The statutory refund provision applied to service tax...

The statutory refund provision applied to service tax establishes a rebuttable presumption that the incidence of tax was passed to the consumer; where tax was paid but not payable, refundable amounts must be credited to the Consumer Welfare Fund unless the claimant proves the burden was not passed. A third-party or departmental No Objection Certificate cannot override that statutory scheme or permit refund to a party who did not bear the tax incidence. Recovery of an erroneously sanctioned refund is governed by the statutory recovery procedure for erroneous refunds, not by the refund provision itself.

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