In a significant ruling, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court has held that the date of filing of the application as reflected on GST portal would be liable to be treated as date of filing claim for refund to the satisfaction of the requirement of Section 54 of the Central GST Act and Rule 89 of the Central GST Rules.
The petitioner, M/s Chromotolab was aggrieved by the rejection of refund application by the department as the refund claim was considered as time barred stating that the application was liable to be treated to have been filed on 17.10.2019 (the date of submission of physical documents) and not on 28.12.2018 (the date of submission of application online and ARN generated).
The department further relied on Circular dated 15.11.2017 wherein it was stated that the refund application is is required to be filed in FORM GST RFD-01A (as notified in the CGST Rules vide notification No. 55/2017 – Central Tax dated 15.11.2017) by the supplier on the common portal and a print out of the said form shall be submitted before the jurisdictional proper officer along with all necessary documentary evidences as applicable within the time stipulated for filing of such refund under the CGST Act.
While relying upon the judgements of the Supreme Court, Justice N.V.Anjaria and Justice Bhargav D. Karia observed that “the date of filing of the application by the petitioner on common portal would be liable to be treated as date of filing claim for refund to the satisfaction of requirement of Section 54 of the CGST Act and Rule 89 of the CGST Rules. The procedure evolved in Circular dated 15.11.2017 cannot operate as delimiting condition on the applicability of statutory provisions.”
Concluding the order, the division bench has directed the department to re-credit the amount of Rs.3,37,076/- in the electronic credit ledger of the petitioner with interest at the rate of 9% p.a. from the date of order of rejection of the claim, i.e., 19.11.2019 till realisation.
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