The Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition ( SLP ) against the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal( CESTAT ) and allowed one month time to avail of statutory appellate remedy. The SLP arose out of the impugned final judgment and order passed by the High Court of Madras.
The petitioner, Sunrise Knitting Mills are manufacturers and exporters in Hosieries and Textiles. They are exporting garments to various countries. To encourage such exports, the government of India has formed Special Economic Zones and the exporters have been granted exemption from Income Tax, Central Sales Tax and service tax. As such, no service tax is levied on exporters for the payments received by them from foreign buyers. While so, the respondent had issued notices proposing to levy service tax on the receipt of export proceeds treating the transaction as an independent transaction, amenable to service tax, based on Reverse Charge Mechanism.
It was submitted before the High Court that the single Judge had failed to exercise the discretionary powers available, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, in favour of the appellants. The judge dismissed the Writ Petitions, due to the availability of an alternative remedy provided under the relevant provisions of the Finance Act.
submitted that in view of the liberty granted by the High Court to avail the alternative appellate remedy, the petitioners are willing to avail of the said remedy now since the petitioners are covered by several judgments/orders of the Customs Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal ( CESTAT ) holding in favour of the assessee in respect of the very same transaction.
However, since the impugned order by the adjudicating Authority was passed and the petitioners wish to avail the appellate statutory remedy the question of delay may not be raised by the CESTAT in the event an appeal is filed by the petitioners herein.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Augustine George Masih disposed of the special leave petitions reserving liberty to the petitioners herein to file the statutory appeal within one month from today. If such an appeal is filed within the aforesaid time frame, the Tribunal shall not raise the issue of limitation in filing the said appeal.
The Petitioner(s) were represented by Mr R. Anand Padmanabhan, Ms Amritha Sarayoo, Ms Ruchi Arya, Mr Anvesho, and Mr Shashi Bhushan Kumar. The respondent(s) were represented by Mr Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Mr Manish Pushkarna, Mr Kamlendra Mishra, Mr Sughosh Subramanyam, Mr. B. K. Satija and Mr. B. Krishna Prasad.
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