Bluefish Pharmaceuticals Private Limited Vs Union of India (Karnataka High Court)
The petitioner challenged orders passed under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, rejecting its claim for refund of accumulated and unutilized input tax credit (ITC). The reliefs sought included quashing of the refund rejection order and the appellate order confirming it, a declaration that the rejection was without authority and jurisdiction, and a direction to grant refund of ITC along with interest.
The petitioner is engaged in providing Research and Development services and other business support services to its parent company located in Sweden. For the period from April 2022 to September 2022, it provided services treated as export of services and issued export invoices endorsed as “Export of Services without payment of IGST” under a Letter of Undertaking (LUT). On this basis, the petitioner claimed refund of accumulated and unutilized ITC available in its electronic credit ledger.
The refund application was rejected by the jurisdictional authority on the ground that the petitioner had wrongly treated local supply of services as export of services. The appellate authority dismissed the petitioner’s appeal and confirmed the rejection. Aggrieved by both orders, the petitioner approached the High Court.
The respondents opposed the petition, contending that upon verification of facts, the petitioner was found to have incorrectly classified local supply of services as export of services, and therefore the refund claim was rightly rejected.
