2024 (4) TMI 281 - HC - GST

Refund of accumulated input tax credit in terms of Section 54(3)(ii) of the Central Goods Service Tax Act 2017 (CGST Act) read with Rule 89(5) of the Central Goods Service Tax Rules 2017 - relevant date for the purpose of considering the limitation u/s 54 - HELD THAT - The respondent authority is directed to consider the date of filing of the refund application to be preferred by the petitioner be considered as the date of filing manual refund application as relevant date for the purpose of considering the limitation under Section 54 so as to process the refund application preferred by the petitioner online and grant the refund to which the petitioner is eligible and not disputed by the respondent authorities in accordance with law. The petitioner shall file fresh refund application online within a period of four weeks from today. However the date of such application shall be deemed to have been to be considered as of date of manual filing of refund applications by the petitioner - Petition disposed off.

Summary

Issues:
The petitioner sought a refund of accumulated input tax credit u/s 54(3)(ii) of the CGST Act, 2017 read with Rule 89(5) of the CGST Rules for the period from July 2017 to November 2020.

Refund Claim Details:
The petitioner had a substantial accumulation of input tax credit due to the inverted tax structure, with GST rates varying between 5% to 28% on procurement and 5% on output supply. The petitioner made refund claims in various petitions, specifying the relevant periods, last dates of filing, and amounts claimed.

Contentions:
The respondent authorities contended that there were no technical glitches hindering the online refund application process. The petitioner's advocate argued that considering the instructions received, none of the refund claims would be granted due to the limitation period. It was proposed that the date of manual application filing should be deemed the relevant date for refund application under Section 54 of the CGST Act.

Judgment:
The Court directed the respondent authority to treat the date of filing the refund application online as equivalent to the date of filing the manual refund application for limitation purposes. The petitioner was instructed to file fresh refund applications online within four weeks, with the application date deemed to be the date of manual filing. Consequently, all petitions were disposed of, and notices were discharged.