Who Is The Proper Authority To Decide IGST Refund? Bombay High Court Directs The Dept. To Decide

The Bombay High Court has directed the department to decide who has the proper authority to decide on an IGST refund.

The division bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Abhay Ahuja has noted that the customs authorities claimed that the GST authority is the proper officer for processing refund claims, whereas the GST authorities claim that it is the customs officer.

The court directed both authorities to discuss amongst themselves and file a joint note, failing which the officers would be directed to remain present in court.

The petitioner/assessee is an exporter. It filed a claim for a refund of IGST through the filing of the shipping bill. The refund claim was not processed by customs. It approached the jurisdictional GST authorities. The claim was not processed.

The petition was pending for more than a year on a simple issue of who was the proper authority to decide the petitioner’s claim.

The court disapproved of the stands taken by the officers of government, which led to the needless waste of judicial time and harassment of the citizens.

"We direct the Respondents to coordinate with each other, decide about the forum, and inform the Court on the next date through a joint note as to who is the correct authority to decide the Petitioner’s claim. If not done, the court would be constrained to call the officers to the court to explain the position," the court said.

Case Title: M/s. Bora Mobility versus Union of India and Others

Case No: Writ Petition No. 1168 Of 2022

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Bom) 133

Date: 08.02.2023

Counsel For Petitioner: Bharat Raichandani, Rishabh Jain

Counsel For Respondent: Shruti D. Vyas, Shehnaz Bharucha, Sangeeta Yadav

Click Here To Read The Order