TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (4) TMI 752
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.... or services or both without payment of integrated tax. Accordingly, the Petitioner claimed a refund of accumulated Input Tax Credit (ITC) on account of the export of services amounting to Rs. 9,63,033/- from April 2020 to March 2021 in terms of section 16 of the IGST Act of 2017 read with section 54 (3) of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017. The refund application for this period was filed on 1 July 2022, and a receipt of which was acknowledged. 3. Thereafter, Respondent No. 3 issued a show cause notice to the Petitioner on 8 July 2022, proposing to reject the refund claim for the reason alleged in the defect sheet. According to the Petitioner, the defect sheet was never received by the Petitioner. Thereafter, Respondent No. 3 passed an impugned order on 25 July 2022, rejecting the refund claim. Being aggrieved by the action taken by Respondent No. 3, the Petitioner has filed this petition. 4. We have heard Mr. Bharat Raichandani, the learned Advocate for the Petitioner and Mr. Himanshu Takke, the learned AGP for Respondent - State. 5. The main contention of the Petitioner is that the procedure adopted by the Respondents to reject the refund claim is contrary t....
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....n Form GST RFD-02 is to be made available to the applicant through the common portal electronically. Rule 90 (3) specifies that where any deficiencies are noticed, the proper officer shall communicate the deficiencies to the applicant in Form GST RFD-03 through the common portal electronically, requiring him to file a fresh refund application after rectification of such deficiencies. Form GST RFD-03, which contains the deficiency memo, is as follows : "FORM-GST-RFD-03 [See Rule 90 (3)] Deficiency Memo Reference No. : Date: To ................................... (GSTIN/UIN/Temporary ID) .................................... (Name) .................................... (Address) Subject: Refund Application Reference No. (ARN)........Dated ... - Reg. Sir/ Madam, This has reference to your above mentioned application filed under Section 54 of the Act. Upon scrutiny of your application, certain deficiencies have been noticed below : Sr. No. Description (select the reason from the drop down of the Refund application) 1. 2. Other (any other reason other than the reason select from the 'reason master') You are advised to file a ....
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....e amount specified above, should not be rejected for reasons stated above. You are hereby directed to furnish a reply to this notice within fifteen days from the date of service of this notice. You are also directed to appear before the undersigned on DD/MM/YYYY at HH/MM. If you fail to furnish a reply within the stipulated date or fail to appear for personal hearing on the appointed date and time, the case will be decided ex parte on the basis of available records and on merits. Signature (DSC): .............................. Name :........................................... Designation:.................................... Office Address :.............................." Date: Place : *** Where the proper officer is satisfied that the amount is payable to the applicant or not payable, the officer will communicate the decision in the forms prescribed. 10. This, in short, is a statutory procedure prescribed for dealing with the application of the refund arising under the provisions of the IGST Act of 2017 and CGST Act of 2017 in the context of the facts of this case. The gist of the procedure enumerated above is that once an application for a refund is m....
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....nt of GSTR 3B and GSTR-1 with Turnover of zero rated supply of goods and services and adjusted turnover". These are deficiencies. They ought to have been communicated to the Petitioner under Form GST RFD -03 as per Rule 90 (3) of the CGST Rules of 2017. Instead, these deficiencies were made a ground to issue a show cause notice for rejection of the refund. Thereafter, Respondent No. 3 proceeded to reject the application on the ground that no reply was received to the show cause notice. 13. There was no opportunity given to the Petitioner to rectify lacunae, and the deficiencies which are to be informed through Form GST RFD-03 were sent in a file attached in Form GST RFD-08. This deprived the Petitioner of submitting a fresh refund application as contemplated under Rule 90 (3) of the CGST Rules of 2017. 14. Apart from this prejudice to the Petitioner, there is nonadherence with the procedure envisaged under the Rules to use the correct Forms prescribed. Not only Form GST RFD-03 was not issued, but a file is sought to be attached to Form GST RFD-08, which has a different Form. We find no explanation for why the deficiencies were uploaded in a separate file. The reason sought to be....