The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), Mumbai bench has held that the customs department is bound to accept the description of goods on the basis of the certificate by Chartered Accountant and the original sale invoice in order to process the refund of SAD.
The sole grievance of the appellant, M/s Sim Entreprises was that the refund claim towards the payment of 4% SAD was rejected on ground of mismatch of description of goods in the import document and subsequent sale invoices. On appeal, the Commissioner (Appeals) confirmed the impugned order.
Dr. Suvendu Kumar Pati, Member observed that the Statutory Auditor namely Chartered Accountant had issued certificates in respect of all five refund claims, which are also annexed to the appeal memo at page 51, 61, 86 ,126, 169 and noted in the Order-in-Original as well as Order-in-Appeal, which were also produced along with original sale invoices.
Allowing the refund claim of the appellant, the Tribunal held that “Therefore, erroneously applying CBEC Circular No. 15/2010-Cus dated 29.06.2010 concerning filing of fraudulent documents like duplicates invoices to seek refund against stock not sold out, is not at all applicable to the Appellant case. Further, there is a clear findings of the Hon’ble Madras High Court reported in 2020 (374) ELT 519 (Mad.) in the case of Johnson Lifts Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Assistant Commissioner of Customs (Refunds), Chennai concerning the admissibility of CA certificate along with original sale invoice wherein it was clearly stipulated that the respondent-department is bound to accept the description of goods in the import documents as well as sale invoice to be one and the same, on the strength of the certificate/correlation statement issued by the Statutory Auditor (Chartered Accountant) (Para 10 of the last line of order).
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