The Mumbai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), validated filing of refund claim within limitation period by speed post.
The appellant, M/s. Sun Metallics & Alloys Pvt Ltdfiledrefund claimand in support of their submission they produced on record the speed post receipt also alongwith its tracking but the aforesaid claim of the appellant about filing of refund claim in the year 2017 has been rejected.
The refund claim was rejected by the authorities below merely on the ground that while filing the second refund claim they lodged the claim for an amount of Rs.10 lakhs without mentioning the fact of filing the claim earlier also in the year 2017 for part of the amount of total refund claim and also on the ground that in one of the speed post the pin code has been wrongly mentioned.
In the refund application it has specifically been mentioned that the appellant had already filed the refund application regarding dropping demand plus interest and penalty as well as appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) against the confirmation of the demand for the balance amount. Not only that, in the prayer of the said Form-R refund application a specific submission has been made that ‘earlier consequential refund application is still pending with the department’.
The Tribunal of Ajay Sharma, Judicial Member observed that “The rejection of the speed post on the ground of incorrect mentioning of pin code seems to be filmsy as the Track Order Status placed on record by the appellant in support of its submissions establishes the delivery/receipt of the aforesaid speed post to the address of the Range Officer.”
“Therefore the appellant has successfully established that they have filed the refund claim of the amount of Rs.2 lakhs within limitation in the year 2017 itself and accordingly the said issue is decided in favour of the appellant” the Tribunal noted.
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