General Motors Technical Centre India Pvt. Ltd. Vs Commissioner of Central Tax (CESTAT Bangalore)
The Hon’ble CESTAT, Bangalore in General Motors Technical Centre India Pvt. Ltd. v. Commissioner of Central Tax [Service Tax Appeal No. 20400 of 2020, dated April 1, 2021] set aside the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) rejecting the refund claim of unutilized CENVAT credit of the assessee. Held that, there is no need to establish one-to-one correlation between output service exported and input service used in such services.
Facts:
General Motors Technical Centre India Pvt. Ltd (“the Appellant”) is engaged in providing Consulting Engineer Services to their customers located outside India and are availing the facility of CENVAT credit of service tax paid on input services which are required for providing the resultant output service as per the provision of CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 (“the CCR”)
The Appellant filed a refund claim for INR 4,26,79,323/- for refund of unutilized CENVAT credit in respect of service tax paid on various input services said to have been used for providing output services exported outside India, during the period October 2015 to December 2015.
After following the due process, the Adjudicating Authority (“A.A.”) vide Order-in-Original dated June 21, 2018 (“OIO”) granted refund of INR 4,15,49,358/- and rejected the balance claim amounting to INR 11,29,965/- considering it to be ineligible CENVAT credit on certain services. Aggrieved by the OIO, the Appellant filed an appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) (“the Respondent”) wherein, the Respondent vide order dated August 28, 2020 (“the Impugned Order”) upheld the OIO, except allowing CENVAT credit of INR 34,250/- availed in respect of Technical Consultancy Services and rejected the remaining amount of the refund claim amounting to INR 10, 95,715/-, on the ground of lack of nexus and for certain services copy of invoice is not produced.
Being aggrieved by the Impugned Order this appeal has been filed.
Issue:
Whether the Respondent was correct in rejecting the refund claim of the Appellant on the ground of lack of nexus between output services exported and input service used in such services?
Held:
The Hon’ble CESTAT, Bangalore in Service Tax Appeal No. 20400 of 2020 dated April 1, 2021, held as under:
