TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (6) TMI 1159
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....pipeline network along with service tax and deposit the same to the Government. The appellant has filed a refund claim of Rs.10,54,78,124/- on 9.7.2015 under Rule 173S of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 in respect of service tax paid on gas transmission charges collected by them from their customers and duly remitted to the Government during the period 1.4.2011 to 31.7.2014. The said refund claim arose due to differential price charges i.e. the difference between tariff already charged as per contract by the appellant and the tariff amount as received by PNGRB. On scrutiny of the ST-3 returns of the appellant, it appeared to the Department that the said refund amount had already been adjusted / utilized by the appellant under Rule 6(3) of Service Tax Rules, 1994. Hence after due process of law, the refund claim was rejected by the original authority. Aggrieved by the same, the appellant filed appeal before Commissioner (Appeals) who has also upheld the Order in Original. The relevant portion of the impugned order is extracted below:- "7. The only ground for rejection of the refund by the respondent is that on verification of the ST-3 returns of the period in dispute, it was seen t....
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.... during the period from April 2011 to July 2014 by adoption of higher transmission charges than the one finalized by PNGRB 11,13,99,069 22,27,980 11,13,992 11,47,41,041 2. Amount adjusted under Rule 6(3) in Oct. 2014 to March 2015 ST3 return 64,31,892 1,28,642 64,317 66,24,851 3. Balance available for claiming refund 10,49,67,177 20,99,338 10,49,675 10,81,16,190 4. Refund claimed 10,54,78,124 5. Refund not claimed (not able to claim certificates of non-availment of credit from 3 customers) 26,38,066 5.2 He further submitted that it has been erroneously held by the lower authorities that they have adjusted this entire amount of Rs.10,54,78,124/- as shown in the ST-3 returns. He submitted that it was only due to inadvertence, at the time of filing of ST-3 returns, that instead of stating that the actual amount adjusted which is Rs.66,24,851/-, they have keyed in the entire amount of Rs.11,47,41,041/- as having been adjusted. This being a clerical error, it could not empower the adjudicating authority to reject the refund claim only on that ground and moreover, they were not able to revise the retur....
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....041/- which was greater than the refund amount claimed, has been adjusted under Rule 6(3), no refund could be paid. The Original Authority felt bound by the legal frame work and found that he could not deviate from the entries made in the Return. Para 26 of the OIO is reproduced below:- "In their replies to Show Cause Notice and during personal hearing, they had reiterated that the amount which was claimed as refund was inadvertently included in the ST-3 returns as utilized towards payment of service tax. They had stated that their tax liability was never near the amount claimed as refund to require adjustment of the same in the manner done in their returns. In this connection, I find that ST-3 return is prescribed under Rule 7(1) of Service Tax Rules, 1994 read with section 70 of Finance Act, 1994. The manner in which it has been filed is also prescribed under the Service Tax Rules read with Finance Act, 1994. There is also provision to amend the same provided in Service Tax Rules read with Finance Act, 1994. This authority granting refund is a 'creature established by statute', the statute being Finance Act, 1994 and rules established thereunder. Therefore, this authority bound....
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....of the jurisdictional officers in ensuring the correctness of the duty paid. In such a situation we cannot accept the stand taken by the original authority that he could not deviate from the entries in the ST-3 Return especially when verifying a refund claim with independent data provided to support the claim. The CBIC has a scheme for the scrutiny of ST-3 Returns as in Circular No. 113/07/2009-St, dated 23.04.2009 and has brought out a 'Return Scrutiny Manual for Scrutiny of ST-3 Returns', for this very purpose. As per these instructions Division/Range offices should, among other things, at first carry out a preliminary online scrutiny of the ST-3 Returns filed. The purpose is to ensure the completeness of the information furnished in the Return, arithmetic correctness of the amount computed as tax and its timely payment, timely submission of the return etc. A Return contains the details of the tax related transactions that a taxpayer has done during a given period. It gives give information about the total tax paid by the tax payer and how he has arrived at it. The Revenue Department cannot retain an amount just because of an inadvertent error relating to the information provided....