Court :
Odisha High Court
Brief :
The Hon'ble Odisha High Court in the matter of Vedanta Ltd. v. Union of India [W.P.(C) No. 33278 of 2020 with W.P.(C) No. 24499 of 2020 and W.P.(C) No. 32166 of 2021 dated January 4, 2023] held that, when Input Tax Credit ("ITC") has been claimed for multiple units of a company registered under a single Goods and Services Tax Identification Number ("GSTIN") by considering all units together as one, then the assessee cannot claim supplementary refund by computing transaction of each individual unit treating as separate entity or separate "registered person".
Citation :
W.P.(C) No. 33278 of 2020 with W.P.(C) No. 24499 of 2020 and W.P.(C) No. 32166 of 2021 dated January 4, 2023
The Hon'ble Odisha High Court in the matter of Vedanta Ltd. v. Union of India [W.P.(C) No. 33278 of 2020 with W.P.(C) No. 24499 of 2020 and W.P.(C) No. 32166 of 2021 dated January 4, 2023] held that, when Input Tax Credit ("ITC") has been claimed for multiple units of a company registered under a single Goods and Services Tax Identification Number ("GSTIN") by considering all units together as one, then the assessee cannot claim supplementary refund by computing transaction of each individual unit treating as separate entity or separate "registered person".
Vedanta Limited ("the Petitioner") is a public limited company involved in the business of manufacture of aluminium products and has three units viz. Aluminum Refinery with Captive Power Plant, Aluminum Smelter and Thermal Power Plant,having common GSTIN Registration.
The Petitioner have made exports and supplied output of the respective units to another unit located in Special Economic Zone ("SEZ") having a separate GSTIN Registration. All the three units made zero rated supplies to the unit in the SEZ and also made supplies to persons located in Domestic Tariff Area ("DTA"). The Petitioner sought for a refund of unutilizedITC including Compensation Cess in Form RFD-01 for the periods September, 2017 to January, 2018; July, 2018 to September, 2018 and November, 2018 to February, 2020paid for the procurement of coal used as inputas the supplies were considered zero-rated under Section 16 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 ("the CGST Act").
The refund claimed was allowed by the Assistant Commissioner, GST and Central Excise ("the Respondent") but the Petitioner found that the quantum of the refund as allowed by taking into consideration all the three units together was much lesser than the quantum of refund if the supplies are made unit-wise, therefore the Petitioner manually applied for grant of supplementary refund. The Respondent refused to grant supplementary refund on the grounds that the Petitioner had already taken the benefits of refund and was claiming supplementary refund on the basis of separate unit-wise calculation was not tenable.
Being aggrieved, this petition has been filed challenging the decision of the Respondentof not entertaining the application of the Petitioner for supplementary return.
Whether the Petitioner, having three units registered under single GSTIN, can claim supplementary return by taking unit-wise calculation when ITC has been already granted by taking into consideration all the three units together?
The Hon'ble Orissa High Court in W.P.(C) No. 33278 of 2020 with W.P.(C) No. 24499 of 2020 and W.P.(C) No. 32166 of 2021held as under:
"54. Refund of tax
(1)Any person claiming refund of any tax and interest, if any, paid on such tax or any other amount paid by him, may make an application before the expiry of two years from the relevant date in such form and manner as may be prescribed:
Provided that a registered person, claiming refund of any balance in the electronic cash ledger in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (6) of section 49, may claim such refund in such form and manner as may be prescribed."
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