Date of Original submission has to be considered on Computing the period of one year for Claim of Refund: CESTAT [Read Order]

The Chennai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT)has ruled that the date of original submission has to be considered on computing the period of one year for a Claim of Refund.

M/s. V.V. Titanium Pigments Pvt. Ltd, the appellant had filed a refund claim of service tax paid on input service used for export of the manufactured goods in terms of Notification No. 41/2012-ST dated 29.6.2012. The refund claim pertains to the period October 2013 to March 2014 and was received by the department on 7.10.2014 and was returned to the appellant to rectify the defects and submit with necessary documents.

After due process of law, the refund sanctioning authority sanctioned the refund of Rs.1,58,739/ against such order the department filed an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) which was allowed in favour of the department.

A Show Cause Notice was issued to the appellant proposing to recover the erroneously granted refundwas adjudicated which culminated in favour of the department thereby rejecting the refund that was sanctioned earlier.

The counsel for the appellant, Shri S. Venkatachalam stated that the ground for denying a refund is that according to the department the period of one year should be computed from the date of resubmitting the refund claim and not the date of the original claim. The time ought to be computed from the date of the original submission of the refund claim and not the date of resubmitting the claim after rectifying the documents. Smt. K. Komathi, counsel for the Respondent relied on the impugned order.

 A Coram of Ms Sulekha Beevi C.S., Member (Judicial) held that the date of original submission has to be taken for computing the period of one year as it was the date on which the appellant has filed the claim initially. The claim has been returned and not processed and rejected by the department. When the claim is returned for resubmission, the appellant is allowed to make the required rectification.

The Tribunal viewed the rejection of the refund claim on the ground that the same was time-barred when computed from the date of resubmission of the refund claim as erroneous and set aside the impugned order.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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