Rejection of refund by appellate authority which was already granted by the adjudicating authority.

Case Details:

Issue- In the above case, the petitioner has challenged the refund rejection order passed by appellate authority and restoration of original refund sanction order passed by adjudicating authority. The petitioner exported certain goods through valid Exporter and, therefore, applied for refund under Rule 89(5) of the Central/Gujarat Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 in the prescribed format. The petitioner also submitted documents in support of the refund claim. The said application was sanctioned by an order dated 26.3.2019 sanctioning the refund of the petitioner. However, the CGST department being dissatisfied with the said refund order preferred an appeal against the said order on the ground that the Exporter had not mentioned the name and GST Identification Number of the present petitioner and was not mentioned in the shipping bill which was an essential condition of the aforesaid Notification.

Held- It was held that the Exporter to whom the petitioner has sold the goods had not mentioned the name and GST Identification Number of the petitioner. However, the authority granted refund considering the factual aspect of the matter i.e. details about the goods sold by the petitioner to the Exporter and further transferred by the Exporter to the third party. It is also true that subsequently, at the request of the petitioner, correct form was submitted by the Exporter to the authority and, therefore, this aspect was required to be considered by the Appellate Authority which is essentially not done in the present case. Hence, we are of the opinion that the impugned order is required to be quashed and set aside. Accordingly, the present petition stands allowed in terms of prayer 19(A). The appeal filed by the CGST is revived. It would be open for the petitioner to file additional documents, if any, along with an affidavit in support of its claim of refund before the Appellate Authority. The Appellate Authority shall decide the appeal afresh, without being influenced by the earlier order as well as by this order and decide the appeal after examining all the documents on record and giving an opportunity of hearing to the parties concerned. All issues were kept open before the Appellate Authority to decide all issues.