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2021 (2) TMI 300 - AT - Service TaxRefund claim - time limitation - appeal not filed within 6 months from the date of the Finance Bill, 2016 received the assent of the President i.e. by 13.11.2016 - validity of refund only to the service provider and not to the party being the service recipient - relevant date for claiming Service Tax refund - output services in the instant case were fully tax exempt - retention of CENVAT Credit - refund of exports as provided under Rule 5 of the CCR, 2004 - Section 103 of the Finance Act, 1994 - HELD THAT:- Undisputedly the appellant in the present case is the service recipient, who has paid the service tax against the invoices issued to them by the service providers. The service providers have in turn collected the service tax and deposited the same as per the assessment made by them in their ST-3 return. These ST-3 returns which are self assessed have been filed by the service provider and there is no appeal filed by any person aggrieved by the said self assessment order. Counsel for the appellant submitted that what they are claiming is the refund of the accumulated CENVAT Credit which has accumulated in their credit account for the reason of the payment of service tax which was not due from them. The argument of the counsel though appears attractive but needs to be rejected at the first instant itself, because as per the CENVAT Credit rule the refund of accumulated CENVAT Credit is permitted only as per the Rule 5 of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 and definitely the case under consideration cannot be said to be the case in terms of Rule 5 - Appellant submitted for getting the refund applications processed they had reversed the entire amount claimed as refund by them from their Input Tax Credit Ledger under GST regime. This fact is not in dispute. In fact the details of the debits made by the appellants from their ITC Ledger, have been recorded by the Assistant Commissioner in his order. Since we hold that the refund applications as such are not maintainable, Assistant Commissioner should consider restoring the input tax credit so debited by the appellant to them if permissible in the GST Law. With regards to the CENVAT Credit has been adjudged subsequent to changeover from the previous regime of Central Excise and Service Tax to the regime of GST. In all the cases the refund application or the rebate claim was filed before 01.07.2017 and determined subsequent to that date. It is not so in the present case. In the case of the appellant the CENVAT credit was available in the book of accounts of the appellant and had been carried forward by them to the GST regime, in manner as provided under the GST Law. The appellants for the processing of the refund claims have not debited the CENVAT account, but have debited the amounts from their Input Tax Credit Ledger. Hence in our view there is no case for cash refund of the amounts debited from the Input Tax Credit Ledger - the matter is remitted back to the original authority for considering allowing the re-credit of the amounts of ITC Credit debited by the Appellant for the processing of these refund applications, if permissible under the GST Law - Appeal disposed off.
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