Order date: 13 June 2022

Facts:

• The appellants, M/s. Vestas Technology R&D Chennai Pvt. Ltd., are engaged in export of services like Consulting Engineering, Maintenance and Repair and Business Support Services and they availed Cenvat credit on various inputs services. 
• The department was of the opinion that the refund claims filed by the appellants for the period April 2012 to December 2013 are hit by limitation and they are liable to be rejected on the ground that they have been filed beyond one year of date of invoice. Hence, show cause notice had been issued. 
• The original authority and the appellant authority accepted the allegations and upheld the rejection. 
• Aggrieved an appeal was being filed. 

Issues:

• Whether the refund claims filed by the appellants are hit by limitation on the ground that they have been filed beyond one year of date of invoice. 

Order:

• The Tribunal primarily relying on the case of CCE & Service Tax Vs M/s. Span Infotech India Private Limited - 2018-TIOL-516-CESTAT-Bang-LB held that in respect of export of services, the relevant date for purposes of deciding the time limit for consideration of refund claims under Rule 5 of the CCR may be taken as the end of the quarter in which the Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate (FIRC) is received, in cases where the refund claims are filed on a quarterly basis. 
• But since the appellants could not produce documents to prove that the claims filed by them were in time, the Tribunal held that it was not possible for them to verify the claim of the appellants that the respective refund applications have been filed within one year of realization of the export proceeds in the relevant quarter.

Accordingly, tor the limited purpose of verification of the relevant dates of realization of export proceeds and the dates of filing of the refund claims, the Tribunal remanded back the matter to the original authority to verify the same and to grant applicable refund to the appellants in the light of the principle laid down by the Larger Bench in the case of M/s. Span Infotech (supra).