The Delhi High Court in a recent decision observed that the GST input tax credit (ITC) refund cannot be rejected merely on non-supply of authenticated document.
The Petitioner. M/s Mittal Footcare, impugned order dated 29.08.2021, whereby the appeal filed by the petitioner against order-in-original dated 10.10.2022 has been dismissed. The order-in-original rejected the application of the petitioner seeking refund on the Input Tax Credit for the period April, 2021 to March, 2022.
The order-in-original rejected the application seeking refund primarily on the ground that there was a mismatch of turnover, excess availment and misdeclaration of invoice value and no supporting documents to disprove the said contention were supplied in response to the show cause notice.
As per the petitioner, the order-in-original erroneously records that a personal hearing was granted to the petitioner, however, no personal hearing was granted. It is further contended in the appeal that the petitioner had uploaded the relevant documents in response to the show cause notice, however, the order records that documents had not been submitted. Petitioners have in the grounds of appeal specifically taken a plea that there appears to be a technical glitch in the system of the respondents and petitioner had uploaded the documents.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Ravinder Dudeja observed that “In our view, the appellate authority appears to have misconstrued the submission of the petitioner. Case of the petitioner is that petitioner had uploaded documents, however, the system did not register the documents which were uploaded from the end of the petitioner. The appellate authority records that petitioner had not submitted any documents which were submitted alongwith the reply.”
The Bench noted that a refund cannot be rejected merely on the ground of nonsupply of authenticated document. In case party is entitled to refund, it is open to the Department to call for further clarification or documents as may be required to satisfy itself that refund is due and payable.
“In the instant case, we notice that petitioner seeks a refund of Input Tax Credit and contends that relevant documents are available with the petitioner. Reference may also be had to Section 54 (1) of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, which provides for a period of two years from the relevant date to make an application seeking refund. The relevant period in issue is April, 2021 to March, 2022 and as such, the application of the petitioner even today is within the limitation prescribed under Section 54 (1) of the said Act” the Court noted.
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