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2023 (9) TMI 136 - AT - Service TaxRefund claims of SEZ Units/Developers - rejection on the ground of filing beyond the prescribed period of one year or on the ground that since for that specific quarter they have already filed the refund claims earlier, second claim for the same quarter cannot be entertained? HELD THAT:- When the services rendered by the appellant are fully exempted from service tax in terms of the provisions of the SEZ Act, which is complete code in itself, the condition for refund imposed under the Notification dated 1.7.2013 issued under the Finance Act are certainly inconsistent with the SEZ Act. A combined reading of Section 26(1)(e) ibid r/w Rule 31 ibid would show that the only condition required for availing exemption from payment of Service Tax by a SEZ unit/ Developer is that the taxable service should be used for carrying out the authorized operations by the SEZ Unit/Developer. There is no dispute that the operations of the appellant were authorised under the SEZ Act and there is no allegation anywhere that any of the conditions laid down under Rule 31 have been violated. Whether there is any requirement of filing refund claim in same quarter under exemption Notification when the Service Tax itself was exempted by Section 26 ibid? - HELD THAT:- It is settled and can be safely said that availability of exemptions under Section 26 ibid would depend only upon the terms and conditions prescribed under the SEZ Act or Rules framed thereunder and cannot be restricted by the terms or conditions including limitation as prescribed in the notification - Since exemption from payment of service tax on taxable services rendered to a Developer or a Unit by any service provider shall be available for the authorized operations in a Special Economic Zone therefore the appellant, for those services, are not liable to pay any tax/duty as Article 265 of the Constitution of India specifically provides that no tax or duty can be either levied or collected except by authority of law - the genuineness or otherwise of the refund claims, after examining the invoices and other relevant documents, cannot be done at this stage as the same have to be verified by the authority concerned for which the matter needs to be remand. The matter is remanded to the Adjudicating Authority to the limited extent in order to enable the said authority to grant the refund claim, after carefully verifying the relevant supporting documents and after following the principle of natural justice - Appeal allowed by way of remand.
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