No CENVAT Credit On Note Sheets And Sanction Orders; Valid Documents With Mandatory Details Required: CESTAT

The New Delhi Bench of Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has stated that CENVAT Credit can't be claimed on note sheets and sanction orders and required valid documents with mandatory details. Dr. Rachna Gupta (Judicial Member) and P.V. Subba Rao (Technical Member) stated that it is not open to the assessee to take CENVAT credit on the basis of note sheets or sanction orders or invoices which do not have the essential details. The assessee could take CENVAT credit only on the strength of proper and valid documents. In this case, the assessee/appellant was providing taxable services such as ―Architectural and Consulting Engineering Services‖ during the relevant period and were registered with the service tax and were paying service tax and availing CENVAT credit on the inputs and input services. The assessee had produced sanction orders and note sheets to show that it had paid certain amounts to their contractors. The assessee could not produce documents as per Rule 9 (1) of CCR on the strength of which it had taken CENVAT credit. The documents which the assessee had produced lacked the essential details specified in Rule 9(2) of CCR. Therefore, the SCN was issued which culminated in the issue of the order. The assessee submitted that CENVAT credit was denied to the assessee on the ground that the documents did not contain the Service Tax Registration number of the service provider, the service tax amount was not shown in the documents and the invoices did not bear the name of the assessee. The revenue argued that the requirements of the invoice or other document to be a valid duty paying document under Rule 9 is a substantive requirement and it cannot be said that the stipulations under Rule 9 are merely procedural. The Tribunal observed that one of the most important CCR is Rule 9 which stipulates which are the documents on the strength of which CENVAT credit can be taken. Rule 9(1) gives the list of documents on the strength of which CENVAT can be availed. This Rule does not include note sheets and sanction orders. It does include the invoices. The bench stated that if the invoice lacks the essential details indicated in the proviso to Rule 9(2), then such a document is not a valid document for availing CENVAT credit. The assessee cannot take CENVAT credit on any document which it pleases and then expects the officers to examine its invoices with its agreements, covering letters sent by the service providers, challans which do not indicate the challan number and hence which have no correlation, added the Tribunal. In view of the above, the Tribunal partly allowed the appeal and set aside the demand for the extended period of limitation and entire penalty under section 78. Case Title: M/s Environment Planning & Coordination Organization v. The Principal Commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax, Bhopal Case Number: SERVICE TAX APPEAL NO. 52116 OF 2018 Counsel for Appellant/ Assessee: Sandeep Mukherjee Counsel for Respondent/ Department: Rajeev Kapoor Click Here To Read/Download The Order

No CENVAT Credit On Note Sheets And Sanction Orders; Valid Documents With Mandatory Details Required: CESTAT

Mehak Dhiman

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