IGST Refund parked in Electronic Credit Ledger Granted by Gujarat HC

The Gujarat High Court in the matter of M/S. IPCA LABORATORIES LTD. has allowed IGST Refund to Taxpayer in his Electronic Credit Ledger.

Court entitled writ applicant to be entitled to claim the refund of the IGST lying in the Electronic Credit Ledger as there is no specific supplier who can claim the refund under the provisions of the CGST Act and the CGST Rules as Input Tax Credit is distributed by the input service distributor.

The Applicant is a pharmaceutical company. One of the manufacturing facilities of the writ applicant – company is located in a Special Economic Zone at Kandla, Gandhidham. The writ applicant claims that it is authorized to operate as a Special Economic Zone at the Kandla SEZ, Kandla, Kutch and is engaged in the export of goods under the Letter of Undertaking (LUT) from the SEZ Unit. In the year 2017-18, the writ applicant accumulated Input Tax Credit (ITC) to the tune of Rs.21,66,887/-.

The Coram find that the issue raised in the present writ application is no longer res integra in view of the judgement and order passed by this Court dated 11th March 2020 in the case of M/s. Britannia Industries Limited vs. Union of India [Special Civil Application No.15473 of 2019]. We take notice of the fact that M/s. Britannia Industries Limited (supra) is based on M/s. Amit Cotton Industries vs. Principal Commissioner of Customs [Special Civil Application No.20126 of 2018 decided on 27th June 2019].

In view of the aforesaid, the writ applicant could be said to be entitled to claim the refund of the IGST lying in the Electronic Credit Ledger as there is no specific supplier who can claim the refund under the provisions of the CGST Act and the CGST Rules as Input Tax Credit is distributed by the input service distributor.

The Gujarat High Court Ruled Out that For the foregoing reasons, this writ application succeeds and is hereby allowed. The impugned order is hereby quashed and set aside. The respondents are directed to process claim of refund made by the writ applicant for the unutilized IGST Credit lying in the Electronic Credit Ledger under Section 54 of the CGST Act 2017.

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