Refund of IGST could not be rejected stating the Data was not transmitted to ICEGATE.

Case Details:

Issue- In the above case, the petitioner has approached the court to direct the respondent authority to refund the IGST paid by petitioner on exports of goods. Petitioner exported certain goods and formalities pertaining to printing of shipping bill etc were undertaken at the Port. That as per the practice prevalent at the said Port, the shipping bill would get generated and printed at the said port based on documents submitted by the exporter. Since the indirect tax regime was set to undergo a complete change and since the said Port was also in the process of adopting new system for transition to GST regime, the shipping bill which should have got printed on 28-6-2017 got printed on 1-7-2017. Since GST was applicable with effect from 1-7-2017 and leviable on the export of goods, the shipping bill got printed on 1-7-2017 with petitioner ‘s GST Identification Number and levy of IGST albeit with the date of 29-6-2017. Petitioner submitted that supplies of goods and services for export have been categorized as “Zero Rated Supply” which means that goods could be exported under Bond or Letter of Undertaking without payment of integrated tax followed by claim of refund of unutilized input tax credit or on payment of integrated tax with provision for refund of the tax paid. Since, petitioner did not receive the refund of IGST of Rs.22,92,587– till 16-9-2018 petitioner approached the customs office to check the status of its refund wherein he was informed that unless export data was transmitted from GSTN (GST Network) to ICEGATE (Indian Customs Electronic Gateway), the Customs office would not be in position to process the refund claim. Petitioner had no control or role to play in the transmission of data from GSTN to ICEGATE.

Held- It was held that communication between the authorities also indicates that petitioner was entitled to refund but petitioner was made to run from pillar to post only because data of IGST refund is not transmitted from GSTN to ICEGATE. That cannot be petitioner’s problem and it was the responsibility of respondents and in particular respondent to ensure that petitioner got its refund. Unfortunately, it is more than 4½ years since the amount has not been refunded. Further it was also held that respondent authority never attempted to resolve the problem of petitioner and no reply has been filed and directions of this court have not been complied with. Therefore, the writ petition was allowed and respondent authority was directed to refund the amount of Rs. 22,92,587/- along with interest @ 9% from date of filing of petition together with cost of sum of Rs. 25000/-