TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (5) TMI 974
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....g March 31, 2017 and partly for the quarter ending June 30, 2017 long after the appointed date of July 1, 2017 and claiming cenvat credit therefor. 3. For possible financial constraints on the part of the assessee - and it is unnecessary to go into the reason for the delay - the service tax payment on account of the relevant manpower and like services obtained by the assessee during the aforesaid periods was made on or about October 23, 2017. The service tax due was tendered by the assessee under the applicable reverse charge mechanism, whereunder it is the service recipient, rather than the service provider, which is obliged to deposit the tax directly. There is no dispute as to the receipt of such payment by the Revenue. 4. The issue that arose and which culminated in a later show-cause notice of July 31, 2019 issued by the Revenue was as to the entitlement of the assessee to claim cenvat credit on the quantum of Rs. 2,18,75,232/- paid by way of service tax, but which was paid long after the appointed date of July 1, 2017 when the goods and services tax regime came to be embraced. The short ground raised by the Revenue in the show-cause notice in such regard was that since ....
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....within the meaning of the relevant expression as on the appointed date could be taken credit of. As a corollary, the Revenue contends that since the service tax component in this case of Rs. 2,18,75,232/- was paid only on October 23, 2017, cenvat credit for such amount could not have been availed of by the assessee. 8. The order-in-original of June 18, 2020, passed by the Joint Commissioner (CGST), Shillong, upheld the Revenue's demand on such count by agreeing with the show-cause notice that for an assessee to obtain cenvat credit, the service tax corresponding thereto ought to have been received by the Revenue prior to the appointed date of July 1, 2017. The second ground that impressed the Joint Commissioner and is reflected in the order-in-original is that double benefit had been obtained by the assessee; first, in terms of the locational exemption applicable and, later, the cenvat credit. 9. It is necessary to deal with the second ground first, since such ground was also before the appellate authority and the appellate authority found no merit therein, particularly since, on a plain reading of the applicable provision, the assessee was entitled to obtain due credit for t....
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....h the Revenue and the assesses being saved by the repeal and savings provision in Section 174 of the Act of 2017. Section 2(48) of the Act of 2017 defines "existing law" and the applicability thereof to the manner in which the relevant service tax return in this case was filed by the respondent assessee cannot be questioned. In any event, the operative words in Section 140(1) of the Act of 2017 also refer to "existing law", if only to emphasise the matter. 13. In terms of Section 140(1) of the Act of 2017, a qualified registered person is entitled to take the amount of cenvat credit carried forward in the return relating to the period immediately prior to the appointed date as furnished by such person under the existing law. In other words, the essence of Section 140(1) of the Act of 2017 is that if a matter is reflected in the return for the relevant period, due credit therefor may be taken as long as the return has been filed in accordance with the existing law and in the manner prescribed thereby. In this case, the return pertaining to the quarter immediately preceding the appointed date was filed on October 24, 2017, a day after the service tax component pertaining to the pa....
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....ervice return and making up for the delay by paying a nominal additional amount. This was the procedure prescribed by the existing law, within the meaning of Section 2(48) of the Act of 2017 and which was saved by Section 174 thereof. 17. Since it is evident that the service tax return relating to the quarter ended June 30, 2017, immediately preceding the appointed date, was filed in accordance with the existing law and there is no dispute that it has been filed in the prescribed form since the Revenue has acted thereon, it is now necessary to see the impact of such service return filed in October, 2017 qua the entitlement of the assessee to obtain cenvat credit for the service tax component. 18. For such purpose, it is Section 140(1) of the Act of 2017 which is the only guiding light. As noticed earlier, the relevant provision pertains to the cenvat credit carried forward in the relevant return. Cenvat credit is qualified in the amended provision by the additional words incorporated therein "of eligible duties" and further qualified by Rule 117 of the Rules of 2017 that refers to "eligible duties and taxes". A fortiori, if the relevant return of an assessee - irrespective of....