Kothari Infotech Pvt. Ltd Vs Union of India & Ors (Gujarat High Court)
The Gujarat High Court heard a writ petition filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution seeking directions to the authorities for sanction of refund of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) amounting to ₹24,21,913/- paid on export of goods treated as “zero-rated supplies,” along with interest and costs. The petitioner, a company engaged in trading printing, writing, and drawing ink, exported digital printing ink to Italy in July 2017 and paid IGST on such export through Shipping Bill No. 7379752 dated 15.07.2017.
After export, the petitioner duly filed its GST returns, including GSTR-01 and GSTR-3B for July 2017. During the initial transitional phase of GST implementation, the Customs House Agent committed an inadvertent error by selecting an incorrect drawback tariff entry while filing the shipping bill. Instead of selecting tariff entry 3215’B’ (applicable where CENVAT facility is availed and associated with a lower drawback rate), the agent selected tariff entry 3215’A’, which carried a higher drawback rate. As a result, the petitioner received duty drawback at 1.50% of FOB value but did not receive refund of IGST paid on the zero-rated export.
The petitioner asserted that due to this clerical error, IGST refund was wrongly withheld. The petitioner approached the customs authorities and made a formal request in February 2019 seeking correction of the shipping bill. Despite repeated requests and the passage of several years, no amendment was carried out. A grievance was also raised on the CPGRAMS portal in February 2023, where the response indicated rejection of refund due to wrong entry selection and alleged non-updation of bank account details on the ICEGATE portal. The petitioner contended that bank details were duly updated and that the authorities ought to have exercised powers under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 to amend the shipping bill based on existing documentary evidence.
