2012 (12) TMI 113

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....neet Kumar Gupta, the Senior Finance Controller, under exceptional circumstances, during the aforesaid period, Mr. Gupta resigned on 26th July, 2010 and on the same day he was relived from his duties. He was responsible for handling the tax matters of the Appellant, including filing the present appeal. Given the unexpected relieving of Mr. Gupta under exceptional circumstances there was no scope for proper briefing and handover of information regarding critical issues (including litigation matters of the company) to Mr. Kaushik Sarkar, who was his successor. Further, at the time of relieving of Mr. Gupta, Mr. Kaushik Sarkar was in Bangalore and immediately thereafter he travelled to USA for urgent business meetings. Accordingly, Mr. Sarkar ....

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....- S. No. Amount of Refund Period involved/Date of payment of service Tax Date of filing 1. Rs.23,43,525/- Oct. 07 to March 08 8.6.2009 2. Rs. 15,83,877/- 31.3.2007 8.6.2009 3. Rs.45,57,862/- 20.11.07 & 22.2.08 8.6.2009 4. Rs. 12,17,544/- 2006-07 8.6.2009 5. Rs. 3,97,922/- April 07 to Sep. 07 8.6.2009 6. Rs.23,43,525/- 7.6.2007 8.6.2009 3. These refund applications were rejected by the lower authorities on the ground that it is time-barred under provisions of Section 11B of Central Excise Act made applicable in relation to service tax by section 83 of Finance Act, 1994. We find that the appellants have not been diligent in initial filing the refund claim as also in filing this appeal against the order of the Comm....

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.... the case of N. Balakrishnan's case (supra) the matter involved was delay in a matter involving declaration of title and ancilliary relief and the order was passed ex-parte against the applicant. None of these relate to refund of taxes which matter needs verification with reference to records maintained by Government and there is a major constraint in preserving records over long period. The time limits for refund of duty and filing of appeals in tax matters have to be seen in such context setting such provisions to naught by liberal interpretation can cause serious difficulties to the tax authorities in collecting and verifying the papers. 7. Further we would like to quote para-12 of the decision in the case of Ram Nath Sao's case (supra)....