Order Date: 17 June 2022

Facts:

• The Appellant, M/s International Seaport Dredging Pvt. Ltd., is engaged in providing dredging services. They filed refund claim under section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 for the refund of unutilized CENVAT credit availed on Education cess (EC), Secondary and Higher Education cess (SHEC) and Krishi Kalyan cess (KKC).
• The original authority rejected the refund claim holding that under section 140 of the CGST Act, 2017, refund can be sought only for eligible duties and that duties excludes refund of cess. 
• Aggrieved by the order, the appellant filed appeal before Commissioner (Appeals) who vide the order impugned herein upheld the same. The appellant filed this appeal.

Issue:

• Whether the appellant is eligible for refund of EC, SHEC, and KKC lying unutilized in their CENVAT account?

Order:

• The Tribunal relied upon another decision of Tribunal in the case of Emami Cement Ltd., wherein it was held that Cenvat Credit avail is a vested right as has held by the Supreme Court in Eicher Motors and Samtel India, accordingly the appellant is clearly entitled to the refund of the balance amount of  credit of  cess. 
• Further, in the case of Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd. on an identical issue, the tribunal held that all the cess are eligible for refund.
• In view of the same, the rejection of refund is not justified. The impugned order is set aside and appeal filed by appellant are allowed with consequential relief.