TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (2) TMI 441
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....nctioned 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 deemed fit in the facts and circumstances of the case may kindly be grant....
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....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 petitioner had been intimated that it was asked to approach the office of respondent No.2 for further clarification. The petitioner again made a r....
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....he 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 case of IGST refund will need to punch accordingly in the EDI system and the mistake, which has been made by the petitioner in relation to the thr....
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....und 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: Provided that no refund of unutilised input tax credit shall be allowed in cases other than-- (i) zero rated supplies made without payment of tax; (ii) where the credit has accumulated on account of rate of tax on inputs being higher t....
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....inal 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 pursuance of section 77; (e) the tax and interest, if any, or any other amount paid by the applicant, if he had not passed on the incidence of such tax and interest to any other person; or (f) the tax or interest borne by such other class of applicants as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, spec....
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....ything 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 goods are exported by sea or air, the date on which the ship or the aircraft in which such goods are loaded, leaves India; or (ii) if the goods are exported by land, the date on which such goods pass the frontier; or (iii) if the goods are exported by post, the date of dispatch of goods by the Post Office concerned to a place outside India; (b) in the case of supply of goods regarded as deemed exports where a refund of ....
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....ndia. 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 information regarding the furnishing of a valid return in FORM GSTR-3 or FORM GSTR3B, as the case may be from the common portal, the system designated by the Customs or the proper officer of Customs, as the case may be, shall process the claim of refund in respect of export of goods and an amount equal to the integrated tax paid in respect of each shipping bill or bill of export shall be electronically credited to the bank account of the applicant mentioned in his registration particulars and as intimated to the Customs authorities. (4) The claim....
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.... 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, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R 1299 (E), dated the 13th October, 2017." 23. Section 16 of the IGST Act, 2017, referred to above provides for zero rating of certain supplies, namely exports, and supplies made to the Special Economic Zone Unit or Special Economic Zone Developer and the manner of zero rating. 24. It is not in dispute that the goods in question are one of zero rated supplies. A registered person making zero rated supplies is eligible to claim refund under the options as provided in sub-clauses (a) and (b) to clause (3) of Section 16 referred to above. ....
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....o 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 Section 54; or (b) the proper officer of Customs determines that the goods were exported in violation of the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. 34. We take notice of two things so far as the circular is concerned. Apart from being merely in the form of instructions or guidance to the concerned department, the circular is dated 9th October 2018, whereas the export took place on 27th July 2017. Over and above the same, the circular explains the provisions of the drawback and it has nothing to do with the IGST refund. Thus, the circular will not save the situation for the respondents. We are of the view that Rule 96 of the Rules, 2017, is ver....
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....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 in case of Amit Cotton Industries (supra) has been delivered on 27.06.2019. The representation had been made by the petitioner in May, 2019 and the last one before this petition has been filed, was on 03.02.2021, when this decision had already become final. Assuming that there was nothing in respect of the interest so far as the IGST refund of the said shipping bills was concerned, it could have granted the same knowing fully well that the issue has been covered, the respondents have chosen not to abide by the decision. Assuming further that Special Leave Petition was pending, when it comes to the decision of Awadkrupa Plastomech Pvt.Ltd (supra) which had been decided on 15.12.2020 and fur....
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....lowed. 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 earlier petitions but would also lead to multiplicity of proceedings. When the courts are overburdened and are accused of arrears, it is the duty of the concerned authorities to avoid multiplicity of proceedings and lessen the burden of the courts. Being a part of the justice delivery system. All efforts should be made by the authorities/quasi judicial authorities and judicial authorities to see that there is no multiplicity of proceedings and to pass the orders considering the binding decisions. It would also avoid unnecessary harassment to the parties as well as the unnecessary expenditure. 5.2 As observed hereinabove despite clear and unequivocal message by the pronouncement of the decisions by the Hon'ble S....