2022 (2) TMI 441
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....f the petitioner, the same cannot be sanctioned under Section 54 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 ('the CGST Act' hereinafter) read with Section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Service Tax Act, 2019 ('the IGST Act' hereinafter. The petitioner is before this Court seeking following reliefs: "22... (A) YOUR LORDSHIPS may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other writ, orders or directions to the respondent authorities to immediately sanction the refund of IGST paid in regard to the goods exported i.e. 'Zero Rated Supplies' made vide shipping bills mentioned hereinabove; (B) YOUR LORDSHIPS may be pleased to direct the respondent authorities to pay interest @ 9% to the petitioner herein on the amount of refund from the date of shipping bill till the date on which the amount of refund is paid to the petitioner herein, as the same is arbitrarily and illegally withheld by the respondent authorities; (C) YOUR LORDSHIPS may be pleased to grant an ex-parte, ad interim order in favour of the petitioner herein in terms of prayer Clause 'A' and 'B' hereinabove; (D) Such further relief(s) as dee....
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.... were stuck due to mismatch of invoice and shipping bills and Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) vide Circular No.05 of 2018-Customs dated 23.02.2018 provided an alternative mechanism to give exporters an opportunity to rectify such errors committed in the initial stage. It envisaged an officer interface on the Customs EDI System through which the Custom Officer may verify the information furnished in GSTN and Custom EDI system and sanction refund in those cases where detail of invoice provided in GSTR-01/Table 6A are correct. 2.6 So far as the petitioner is concerned, he has complied with the circular and filed the concordance table on 13.06.2018 pinpointing the errors in shipping bill and the invoice and the GST return. 2.7 There was no response from the authority, several written requests had been made for sanctioning the refund. The respondent No.3 vide e-mail on 14.05.2019 addressed to ICEGATE, the reply is saying that the drawback scheme A instead of drawback scheme B was erroneously mentioned. According to the petitioner, the rate of both higher and lower duty drawback is 2% and hence, there was complete non application of mind. 2.8 On 15.05.2019 the petitione....
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....ndustries vs. Principal Commissioner of Customs, reported in (2019) 107 taxmann.com 167 (Guj.) decided in favour of the exports. According to the respondents, the department had preferred an SLP Diary No.5502 of 2021 and on the technical ground of delay in filing SLP, no order on merit has been issued, therefore, the request is made to dismiss this petition in limine. 4. This Court has heard at length the learned advocate, Mr.Hiren Trivedi and learned senior standing counsel, Mr.Priyank Lodha. 5. We notice that the provision of Section 54 of the CGST Act read with Section 16 of IGST Act after the goods are exported, the shipping bills are treated as the application of refund of IGST paid in regard to the export goods and the respondents are required to refund the amount of IGST to the petitioner. In the matter on hand, the exports had been made on September, 2017, the refund has not been made available. It is though the contention raised by the respondents of the rate of higher and lower duty drawback, though is of 2% in the instant case, the Circular No. 37 of 2018 dated 09.10.2018 is applicable and the exporters, who had availed the option to take drawback at higher rate in....
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....id on such tax or any other amount paid by him, may make an application before the expiry of two years from the relevant date in such form and manner as may be prescribed: Provided that a registered person, claiming refund of any balance in the electronic cash ledger in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (6) of section 49, may claim such refund in the return furnished under section 39 in such manner as may be prescribed. (2) A specialised agency of the United Nations Organisation or any Multilateral Financial Institution and Organisation notified under the United Nations (Privileges and Immunities) Act, 1947, Consulate or Embassy of foreign countries or any other person or class of persons, as notified under section 55, entitled to a refund of tax paid by it on inward supplies of goods or services or both, may make an application for such refund, in such form and manner as may be prescribed, before the expiry of six months from the last day of the quarter in which such supply was received. (3) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (10), a registered person may claim refund of any unutilised input tax credit at the end of any tax period: ....
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....cil, refund on a provisional basis, ninety per cent. of the total amount so claimed, excluding the amount of input tax credit provisionally accepted, in such manner and subject to such conditions, limitations and safeguards as may be prescribed and thereafter make an order under subsection (5) for final settlement of the refund claim after due verification of documents furnished by the applicant. (7) The proper officer shall issue the order under subsection (5) within sixty days from the date of receipt of application complete in all respects. (8) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (5), the refundable amount shall, instead of being credited to the Fund, be paid to the applicant, if such amount is relatable to-- (a) refund of tax paid on zero-rated supplies of goods or services or both or on inputs or input services used in making such zero-rated supplies; (b) refund of unutilised input tax credit under subsection (3); (c) refund of tax paid on a supply which is not provided, either wholly or partially, and for which invoice has not been issued, or where a refund voucher has been issued; (d) refund of tax in pursua....
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....ontained in this section, the amount of advance tax deposited by a casual taxable person or a non-resident taxable person under sub-section (2) of section 27, shall not be refunded unless such person has, in respect of the entire period for which the certificate of registration granted to him had remained in force, furnished all the returns required under section 39. (14) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, no refund under sub-section (5) or sub-section (6) shall be paid to an applicant, if the amount is less than one thousand rupees. Explanation.-For the purposes of this section,-- (1) "refund" includes refund of tax paid on zero-rated supplies of goods or services or both or on inputs or input services used in making such zero-rated supplies, or refund of tax on the supply of goods regarded as deemed exports, or refund of unutilised input tax credit as provided under sub-section (3). (2) "relevant date" means- (a) in the case of goods exported out of India where a refund of tax paid is available in respect of goods themselves or, as the case may be, the inputs or input services used in such goods,-- (i) if the ....
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....d the date of shipping bills or bills of export; and (b) the applicant has furnished a valid return in FORM GSTR-3 or FORM GSTR-3B, as the case may be; (2) The details of the relevant export invoices in respect of export of goods contained in FORM GSTR-1 shall be transmitted electronically by the common portal to the system designated by the Customs and the said system shall electronically transmit to the common portal, a confirmation that the goods covered by the said invoices have been exported out of India. Provided that where the date for furnishing the details of outward supplies in FORM GSTR-1 for a tax period has been extended in exercise of the powers conferred under section 37 of the Act, the supplier shall furnish the information relating to exports as specified in Table 6A of FORM GSTR-1 after the return in FORM GSTR-3B has been furnished and the same shall be transmitted electronically by the common portal to the system designated by the Customs: Provided further that the information in Table 6A furnished under the first proviso shall be auto-drafted in FORM GSTR1 for the said tax period. (3) Upon the receipt of the informati....
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.... of rule 89. (10) The persons claiming refund of integrated tax paid on exports of goods or services should not have received supplies on which the benefit of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance notification No. 48/2017-Central Tax, dated the 18th October, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R 1305 (E), dated the 18th October, 2017 or notification No. 40/2017-Central Tax (Rate), dated the 23rd October, 2017 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R 1320 (E), dated the 23rd October, 2017 or notification No. 41/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated the 23rd October, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R 1321 (E), dated the 23rd October, 2017 or notification No. 78/2017- Customs, dated the 13th October, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Subsection (i), vide number G.S.R 1272(E), dated the 13th October, 2017 or notification No. 79/2017-Customs, dated the 13th October, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Pa....
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....18 referred to above, then we are afraid the submission canvassed on behalf of the respondents should fail as the same is not sustainable in law. 29. We are not impressed by the stance of the respondents that although the writ-applicant might have returned the differential drawback amount, yet as there is no option available in the system to consider the claim, the writ-applicant is not entitled to the refund of the IGST. First, the circular upon which reliance has been placed, in our opinion, cannot be said to have any legal force. The circular cannot run contrary to the statutory rules, more particularly, Rule 96 referred to above. 30.Rule 96 is relevant for two purposes. The shipping bill that the exporter may file is deemed to be an application for refund of the integrated tax paid on the goods exported out of India and the claim for refund can be withheld only in the following contingencies: (a) a request has been received from the jurisdictional Commissioner of central tax, State tax or Union territory tax to withhold the payment of refund due to the person claiming refund in accordance with the provisions of subsection (10) or sub-section (11) of S....
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....a), the Court has passed the following order without discussing the issue on the interest. "11. In the result, this petition succeeds and is hereby allowed. The respondents are directed to immediately sanction the refund towards the IGST paid in respect to the goods exported i.e. 'Zero Rated Supplies' made vide the shipping bills. It appears that the writ=applicant has also prayed to pay interest at the rate of 9% on the amount of refund from the date of shipping bill till the date on which the amount is actually paid. We may only say that if the refund of the principal amount is not sanctioned and actually paid to the writ-applicant within the period of six weeks from the date of receipt of this order, then interest would start accumulating at the rate of 9% and the amount shall be paid accordingly." Learned senior standing counsel, Mr.Priyank Lodha seeks to rely on this to urge this Court that the refund of the principal amount, if is not sanctioned within period of six weeks, then only the interest component should run. 6. We do not agree with this proposition. The respondent has chosen not to follow the decision of this Court. We notice that the decision....
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....itative pronouncements, act of issuance of show cause notice by the Deputy Commissioner is wholly impermissible and unpalatable and deserves to be quashed and struck down with a specific note of strong disapproval. The respondents simply could not have exercised the powers contained under the statute in such arbitrary exercise and in complete disregard to the pronouncement of this Court particularly reminding the Revenue authorities of the binding effect of decision of Tribunal on the identical question of law. This not only led to multiplicity of proceedings but also speaks of disregard to the direction of this Court rendered in the earlier petition of this very petitioner. Resultantly, petition stands allowed. Both the show cause notices dated 21.8.2012 and 22.1.2013 are quashed and struck down." It appears that still the message has not reached the concerned authorities in following the binding decisions of the higher appellate authorities and/or courts solely on the ground that the same is in the case of another assessee. Such a conduct is also required to be viewed from another angle. This would not only amount to disregarding the direction of the court rendered in ea....
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