Order Date – 07 July 2022

Facts – 

• The Petitioner, Ambience Commercial Developers Pvt. Ltd.,  under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019, gets a rebate of 50% of the Service tax demand, which was pegged at Rs.16,61,78,084/- and after accounting for rebate scaled down to Rs 8,30,89,042/-. 
• The petitioner has paid in cash towards the tax demand, Rs.6,39,36,641/-, there was an error made by the petitioner, while filling the declaration form under the Scheme as petitioner mentioned amount of Rs.5,95,38,784/- to be paid while filing the said form.
• The petitioner paid towards tax the balance amount i.e., Rs.1,91,52,401/-.
• It was submitted by the petitioner that the insistence of the revenue that they should have paid Rs.5,95,38,784/- is erroneous.
• Aggrieved the petitioner filed a petition.

Issue – 

• Whether Cenvat credit wrongly availed and utilised against payment of Service tax liability is invocation under Rule 14 of CCR 2004?

Order – 

• The Court accepted the contentions of the petitioner that the Designated Committee cannot go beyond either the counters of the show-cause notice dated 07.01.2014 or the operative directions contained in the order-in-original dated 20.04.2015.
• It is important to highlight that Rule 14 of the 2004 Rules is a recovery provision, which entitles the respondents to straightaway proceed to recover CENVAT credit which has been taken or utilised wrongly or has been erroneously refunded, along with interest. The intrinsic evidence, which, is available in this case, indicates that the amount i.e., the CENVAT credit which has been disallowed, is embedded in the demand of Rs. 16,61,78,084/-.
• The fact that the petitioner made a mistake in stating a higher amount concerning outstanding service tax demand, cannot result in an estoppel and thus impede the petitioner from seeking the requisite benefits under the Scheme and the provisions of the Act. 
• Therefore they held that the demand cannot be limited to Rs. 16,61,78,084/-, as the amount which was disallowed by way of CENVAT credit i.e., Rs. 8,07,72,766/-, had to be added to the same.
• The impugned statement the order passed in the rectification application, are set aside and Petition allowed.