2018 (6) TMI 380 - AT - Service Tax

Refund of unutilized CENVAT credit - Refund of unutilized cenvat credit - case of appellant is that they will be entitled to the CENVAT credit already availed under Rule 2 (l) of the CCR 204. Accordingly, the refund u/r 5 is to be paid to the appellant - Held that - As pointed out by the appellant, the issues pertaining to the period prior to January 2012 stands already disposed of by the Commissioner (Appeals) in his earlier order. Since the finding in the present order appears to have been passed without noticing such fact, we have no hesitation in holding that this part of the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) order is null and void since the same had already been decided by his earlier order. Refund claim - various input services - Air Travel Agent - Business Auxiliary Service - Courier Agency - Custom House Agent - Event Management Service - Management, Maintenance and Repair service - Manpower Recruitment Service - Transportation of Goods by road - period January 2012 to March 2012 - Held that - All services other than Event Management Service are covered by the definition of input service under Rule 2(l) of the CCR 2004 even after amendment carried out on 1.4.2011. Consequently, the appellant will be eligible for such services and hence eligible for refund of the same under Rule 5 of the CCR - However, in respect of Event Management Services, we fail to see the correlation of the same with the activities of the appellant and cannot be considered as an input service - refund on all services allowed except event management services. It has been submitted by the appellant that FIRCs for an amount of ₹ 49 lakhs, which could not be produced before the lower authorities during the earlier proceedings, are now available with the appellant and can be produced for verification - a further opportunity is required to be given to the appellant for submission of such FIRCs for verification before the original authority who will consider the same before passing order in the de novo proceeding for the period Jan-March 2012. Appeal disposed off.

Summary

Issues:
Refund of unutilized cenvat credit under Rule 5 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004; Dispute regarding the refund claims; Validity of the impugned order; Eligibility for cenvat credit for the period January 2012 to March 2012; Consideration of various input services for availing cenvat credit; Disallowance of cenvat credit on Event Management Services; Submission of FIRCs for verification; Method of calculating refund claim.

Analysis:

The appeals were filed against the Order-in-Appeal passed by the Commissioner of Service Tax (Appeals-I) Chennai, rejecting refund claims of unutilized cenvat credit under Rule 5 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004, for services exported between September 2009 to March 2012.

The appellant argued that certain appeal orders had already been disposed of by the Commissioner (Appeals) in an earlier order, making the present impugned order null and void to that extent. The Tribunal agreed and disposed of those appeals as infructuous.

Regarding the period January 2012 to March 2012, the appellant claimed entitlement to cenvat credit under Rule 2(l) of the CCR 2004 for various input services. The Tribunal found most services eligible for credit except Event Management Services, which were deemed unrelated to the appellant's activities, resulting in disallowance of credit for that service.

The appellant also mentioned the availability of FIRCs worth ?49 lakhs, which were not produced earlier, and requested an opportunity to submit them for verification. The Tribunal agreed to allow this and directed the original authority to consider the FIRCs in a de novo proceeding.

The Tribunal noted that the method of calculating the refund claim by deducting utilized credit from total credit availed was held in favor of the assessee in an earlier order, and hence set aside the authorities' method in the current order.

Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the impugned orders for certain appeals and allowed one appeal partly, directing consequential relief as applicable.