Refund Cannot Be Denied When CA Certificate & Ledger Confirms Excess Excise Duty: CESTAT Kolkata

The Kolkata Bench of Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that the assessee is entitled to a refund of excess excise duty since both the Chartered Accountant's certificate and the ledger clearly established that the duty was paid in excess and was never passed on to any third party. R. Muralidhar (Judicial Member) and K. Anpazhakan (Technical Member) observed that the assessee has filed a Chartered Accountant's Certificate, which certifies that excise duty has not been passed on to any third party and was also shown as receivable from the Government of India. In this case, the assessee/appellant is a public sector undertaking. During the month of March 2014, anticipating the performance incentive to be received by them, the assessee paid the excise duty. Subsequently, they found that the performance incentive received by them was much lower than what they had anticipated. Because of this, excess payment of excise duty had occurred. The assessee filed the refund claim, which was rejected on the ground that the assessee had not provided all the proper documents which require verification before the refund claim is granted. Subsequently, the refund claim was rejected by the adjudicating authority, and the assessee filed their appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals). The Commissioner (Appeals) also dismissed their appeal on the grounds that the Chartered Accountant Certificate does not prove that the incidence of duty has not been passed on or that such duty was being reflected as part of receivables by the assessee. The assessee submitted that when the detailed Chartered Accountant Certificate is read with the ledger copy, it would be clarified that this amount was paid in excess by the assessee to the exchequer, and this was always shown as receivable from the Government of India. The department submitted that the CA certificate initially filed by the assessee did not show the details, and the assessee had not properly proved non-payment of the excise duty to the third party. A harmonious reading of the Chartered Accountant's Certificate along with the ledger shows that this amount has always been carried forward in their balance sheet and in the ledger as receivable from the Government of India, stated the bench. Since the amount clearly tallies with the amount of refund claim filed by the assessee, the Tribunal did not find any reason to doubt as to whether this is the same amount which has been claimed as refund by the assessee. Based on this documentary evidence, the bench held that the assessee has satisfactorily proved that the incidence of excise duty has not been passed on to any third party, thereby the unjust enrichment clause is not attracted in this case. In view of the above, the Tribunal allowed the appeal. Case Title: M/s. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. v. The Commissioner (Appeals), CGST, Central Excise & Customs Case Number: Excise Appeal No. 77195 of 2018 Counsel for Appellant/ Assessee: Rajeev Kumar Agarwal Counsel for Respondent/ Department: S. K. Dikshit Click Here To Read/download Order

Refund Cannot Be Denied When CA Certificate & Ledger Confirms Excess Excise Duty: CESTAT Kolkata

Mehak Dhiman

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