Vodafone Idea Limited Vs Union of India & Ors. (Gujarat High Court)
Gujarat High Court held that rejection of rebate claim under rule 5 of the Export Rules for want of documents not justified since and department cannot deny rebate claim which was legally entitled to petitioner.
Facts- The petitioner company was holding Service Tax Registration with the Commissioner of Service Tax, Division-II, Range XX, Commissionerate Delhi. With effect from 12th February 2016, the petitioner obtained Centralized Registration for its premises located at Ahmedabad, falling within the jurisdiction of respondent No.2 – Principal Commissioner of CGST.
The petitioner is engaged in the business of providing telecom services categorized under the category of ‘Telecommunication Services’. The petitioner initially paid service tax on the gross invoice value of the service exported to the Foreign Telecom Operators located outside India and thereafter claimed rebate of the same as provided under Rule 5 of the Export Rules read with Notification No.11 of 2005 dated 19th April 2005. The petitioner accordingly filed 7 rebate claims with the Delhi Commissionerate.
The required documents were submitted by the petitioner. Being aggrieved, the petitioner preferred appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals-I), New Delhi. Post centralized registration, petitioner requested to transfer the appeal papers to the office of Commissioner (Appeals), Ahmedabad. However, rebate claim was rejected on the ground that original files of the rebate claims submitted by the petitioner were not received from the office of the Assistant / Deputy Commissioner of Service Tax, Refund (Division VI), Delhi-II.
