Indian CESTAT Grants Tax Refunds to Integral Coach Factory and Dr. Reddy’s SEZ Unit

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in Chennai partially allowed the refund claims of Integral Coach Factory (ICF), a railway coach manufacturer. The tribunal ruled that missing batch numbers on invoices do not automatically bar refunds of excess excise duty, provided the appellant can demonstrate a clear correlation between invoices, batch‑costing records and the duty paid. The matter was remanded to the Adjudicating Authority for limited verification of the records and to determine the admissible refund amount.

In a separate ruling, the Hyderabad bench of CESTAT set aside the tax department’s rejection of a service‑tax refund claim by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. for its Special Economic Zone (SEZ) unit in Srikakulam. The tribunal held that procedural objections—such as invoice mismatches and missing originals—cannot defeat a refund when the taxed services were used for authorised SEZ operations, citing the overriding effect of Section 51 of the SEZ Act. The refund of approximately Rs 34.7 million was allowed with consequential relief.