Relief for Wipro Technologies: Karnataka HC Upholds CENVAT Credit Refund Despite Exported Software Services being Non-Taxable [Read Order]
The Court held that the taxability of output services was not a precondition for claiming the refund, noting that previous judgments, including mPortal India Wireless Solutions P. Ltd. and KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd., had already settled the issue in favour of the assessee.
![Relief for Wipro Technologies: Karnataka HC Upholds CENVAT Credit Refund Despite Exported Software Services being Non-Taxable [Read Order]](https://images.taxscan.in/h-upload/2025/08/19/2078210-wipro-technologies-karnataka-hc-cenvat-credit-software-services-non-taxable-taxscan.webp "Relief for Wipro Technologies: Karnataka HC Upholds CENVAT Credit Refund Despite Exported Software Services being Non-Taxable [Read Order]")
The High Court of Karnataka granted relief to Wipro Technologies by upholding the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal’s ( CESTAT) order allowing refund of CENVAT Credit on inputs used for exported IT services, despite the output services being non-taxable.The Revenue-appellant, appealed before the High Court against the order dated 03.09.2020 passed by the CESTAT, Bangalore,...
The High Court of Karnataka granted relief to Wipro Technologies by upholding the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal’s ( CESTAT) order allowing refund of CENVAT Credit on inputs used for exported IT services, despite the output services being non-taxable.
The Revenue-appellant, appealed before the High Court against the order dated 03.09.2020 passed by the CESTAT, Bangalore, in Appeal Nos. A/20579-20582/2020. In this case, Wipro Technologies, respondent-assessee, provided IT services and claimed a refund of CENVAT Credit on inputs used for export services.
The Revenue rejected the claim, holding that the output services were not taxable. The tribunal held that the assessee was entitled to the refund even if the output services were not taxable.
The revenue counsel submitted that the assessee was not entitled to a refund of CENVAT Credit unless the output services were taxable, noting that the exported services were not subject to service tax.
The respondent’s counsel, argued that the services were not taxable during the period in question and that taxability of output services was not a precondition for claiming a refund on exported input services. He relied on several judgments of this Court, including mPortal India Wireless Solutions P. Ltd. v. CST Bangalore (2012), KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd. v. Commissioner of C.Ex., Pune-1 (2013), and others.
The division bench comprising Justices S.G.Pandit and K.V.Aravind considered the submissions of the revenue and assessee counsel. It observed that the issue was no longer res-integra in view of previous judgments, including mPortal India Wireless Solutions, which held that even if exported software services were not taxable, the assessee was still entitled to a refund of CENVAT Credit.
The Court noted that the judgments had reached finality and were not disputed by the revenue. Since the substantial questions of law were already answered against the revenue, the High Court dismissed both appeals.
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