VEDANTA LIMITED Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (DRAWBACK),

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner exports goods on payment of Integrated Goods and Service Tax and he claims refund of such tax.

(2.) The petitioner Company exported goods vide 512 invoices through 71 shipping bills and duly paid the IGST of Rs.94,42,39,026 in terms of the Section 16 (3) of the IGST Act. While so, due to variation of rates in London Metal Exchange, the prices were revised in respect of 442 invoices covered by 61 shipping bills. The petitioner Company has paid tax on the differential export value to the tune of Rs.2,02,94,956. Thereafter, the petitioner claimed refund of Rs.94,42,39,026/- along with the additional tax paid due to variation of rates in London Metal Exchange to the tune of Rs.2,02,94,956/-. The respondents have refunded Rs. 94,42,39,026/-. But they are not in a position to refund the balance amount of Rs.2,02,94,956/- as the entire process is system managed. There is no provision for processing the refund manually. Therefore, after deliberation they have taken a stand to find out a way for resolving such kinds of disputes. In fact, the fourth respondent issued Circular No.40 of 2018-Customs F.No.450/119/2017-Cus-IV, dated 24.10.2018, wherein, it is observed as under:-

(3.) In the peculiar circumstances, the respondents have issued the above circular to resolve the issue. Now the present case on hand is also similar to that of the problem which was faced by the respondents in similar circumstances. When there is no provision in the electronically managed system, they should have visualised the situation prior to its introduction to do away with these anomalies and provided solution to the same. When the issue of refund like the present one was dealt with by the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad in R/Special Civil Application No.20126 of 2018 dated 27.06.2019 (M/s. Amit Cotton Industries Vs. The Principal Commissioner of Customs and Others), the High Court has given a direction to the respondents to refund the IGST paid in regard to the goods exported i.e., 'Zero rated Supplies', with 7% Simple Interest in view of circular dated 09.10.2018 and Rule 96 of Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017.