Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Vs Union of India & Ors. (Gujarat High Court)
Summary: The Gujarat High Court allowed the petition filed by M/s Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and quashed the Commissioner (Appeals)’s order dated 22.03.2019, as well as the consequential proceedings for recovery of refund already sanctioned to the petitioner. The central issue before the Court was whether transitional CENVAT credit carried forward through GST TRAN-1, although verified and credited in the electronic credit ledger only in September 2017, could be treated as an opening balance of unutilized input tax credit as on 01.07.2017 for determining refund eligibility for July and August 2017.
The petitioner had been registered under the erstwhile Central Excise Act, Finance Act, 1994, Gujarat Value Added Tax Act and Central Sales Tax Act. It filed applications under Section 140 of the CGST Act for transitional credit, including a claim of Rs.79.90 crores on 19.09.2017 and another of Rs.21.94 crores on 20.12.2017. The first application resulted in transitional credit of Rs.79,89,56,035/- being transferred as CGST in the electronic credit ledger on 19.09.2017. According to the petitioner, the credit represented the closing CENVAT balance as on 30.06.2017 and therefore had to be regarded as an opening credit available from 01.07.2017.
