2019 (5) TMI 1020 - AT - Service Tax

Refund claim - Period of limitation - Service Tax paid erroneously on Foreign Commission Agent Service - rejection of refund on the ground that it was filed beyond the time limit prescribed under the provisions of Section 11 B of Central Excise Act, 1944 made applicable to service tax law - HELD THAT - It is admitted by the appellant that important documents could not be located by them and therefore, they took time from 2010 to 2013 to resubmit application for refund along with required documents. Therefore, the date of filing of refund claim has to be treated as 25.11.2013 and since the date of payment of service tax is 10.09.2009, the refund is hit by limitation. Appeal dismissed - decided against Appellant.

Summary

Issues:
Refund claim filed beyond time limit prescribed under Section 11 B of Central Excise Act, 1944 for Service Tax paid erroneously on 'Foreign Commission Agent Service'.

Analysis:
The appeal arose from an Order-in-Appeal passed by the Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax (Appeals), Lucknow. The appellant filed a refund claim of &8377; 4,78,574 on 29.09.2010 with the Assistant Commissioner Central Excise and Service Tax Sitapur for Service Tax paid erroneously on 'Foreign Commission Agent Service', which was exempted from service tax payment. The refund application was returned due to missing documents and resubmitted on 25.11.2013. The Original Authority rejected the claim as time-barred under Section 11 B of the Central Excise Act, 1944. The Commissioner (Appeals) upheld this decision, leading to the appeal before the Tribunal.

The appellant's representative argued that the delay in resubmitting the claim was due to misplaced documents and that the provision of Section 11 B should not apply to amounts paid under a mistake of law. The Revenue's representative contended that the filing date should be considered as 25.11.2013, as acknowledged by the appellant. They cited a Supreme Court ruling to support the application of Central Excise Act provisions to refund processing.

After hearing both parties, the Tribunal found the Revenue's contentions valid. The appellant's admission of missing documents justifying the delay until 2013 for resubmission led to the filing date being considered as 25.11.2013. As the service tax payment date was 10.09.2009, the refund claim was time-barred. Consequently, the Tribunal upheld the impugned order and dismissed the appellant's appeal, along with disposing of a miscellaneous application for document submission.