October 2012
CENVAT Credit – Refund of service tax paid on input services – Export of software – Non taxable at the relevant point in time – Exporter entitled to refund of such unutilised CENVAT Credit on furnishing requisite documents – Registration is not a pre-requisite to claim CENVAT Credit in absence of any such statutory provisions.
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3. 2012 (27) STR 134 (Kar) mPortal India Wireless Solutions Pvt. Ltd. v. CST, Bangalore
CENVAT Credit – Refund of service tax paid on input services – Export of software – Non taxable at the relevant point in time – Exporter entitled to refund of such unutilised CENVAT Credit on furnishing requisite documents – Registration is not a pre-requisite to claim CENVAT Credit in absence of any such statutory provisions.
Facts:
The petitioner was an STPI unit engaged in development and export of software and a 100% export oriented unit. The Assistant Commissioner rejected the refund claim in absence of registration certificate and requisite documents as well as the reason of time bar and the order was upheld by the Commissioner. The Tribunal observed that the petitioner was entitled to the refund of CENVAT credit with respect to input services even when export of softwares was not liable to service tax and that limitation u/s. 11B of the Central Excise Act did not apply in this case. However, it upheld that the CENVAT Credit could be claimed only when the assessee was registered.
Held:
Bar of limitation was not the ground for rejection of refund claim of accumulated unutilised CENVAT Credit by an export of services. Further, there is no express provision providing restriction on availment of CENVAT Credit in case of unregistered assessees and therefore, it was held that registration is not a pre-requisite for claiming CENVAT Credit. The matter was remanded for verification of invoice/s/bill/s/challan/s, service tax payment etc.
