Page 96 - GSTL_ 28th May 2020_Vol 36_Part 4

542 GST LAW TIMES [ Vol. 36
2. The refund rejected by the adjudicating authority is against the estab-
lished principles of law.
2.1 As per conjoined reading of Section 54(3) Central Goods and Services
Tax Act, 2017 and Section 16 and Section 2(5) of Integrated Goods and Ser-
vices Tax Act, 2017, any person doing export is eligible to claim refund of
Input Tax Credit.
The appellant place before the Ld. Appellate Joint Commissioner that the
appellant is doing exports of goods from the SEZ unit to United States and
as per the foregoing provisions, the SEZ unit is very well placed to claim
the refund of unutilized Input Tax Credit (“ITC”). Further, the IT Infra-
structure maintained by the Goods & Services Tax Infrastructure Network
allows the SEZ unit to seamlessly file the refund application for refund of
unutilized Input Tax Credit (“ITC’).
2.2 As per Rule 89(2) of Andhra Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Rules,
2017
“a declaration to the effect that the Special Economic Zone unit or
the Special Economic developer has not availed the input tax credit
of the tax paid by the supplier of goods or services made to a Spe-
cial Economic Zone unit or a Special Economic Zone developer.”
The Ld. Adjudicating Officer had interpreted the above provisions as that
the SEZ unit is not eligible to take input tax credit and on such erroneous
interpretation he has rejected refund claim and such rejection is unconstitu-
tional and bad in law and not maintainable in the eyes of law.
The above interpretation of Ld. Adjudicating Officer raises the below ques-
tions :-
(a) Is the SEZ unit eligible to take claim of input tax credit under
the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017?
(b) Is the declaration mentioned in Rule 89(2)(f) of Andhra Pra-
desh Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 restricts the ab initio
eligibility of SEZ unit to claim input tax credit?
The appellant do hereby humbly submit as follows :-
(a) The first aspect - “Is the SEZ unit eligible to take claim of input
tax credit under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act,
2017” - has been dealt as follows :-
Section 16 of Andhra Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act,
2017 deals with the “Eligibility and conditions for taking input
tax credit”. As per the sub-section (1) of said Section 16 :-
“Every registered person shall, subject to such conditions
and restrictions as may be prescribed and in the manner
specified in section 49, be entitled to take credit of input
tax charged on any supply of goods or services or both to
him which are used or intended to be used in the course
or furtherance of his business and the said amount shall
be credited to the electronic credit ledger of such per-
son.”
Further sub-section (2) of said Section 16 read as :-
“Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, no
registered person shall be entitled to the credit of any in-
put tax in respect of any supply of goods or services or
both to him unless :-
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