1 By this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ applicant has prayed for the following reliefs:

“A. Your Lordships may be pleased to admit this petition,

B. Your Lordships may be pleased to allow this petition,

C. Your Lordships may be pleased to issue writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ directing the respondent authorities to immediately sanction the refund of IGST aggregating to ₹ 1,00,424/- paid in regard to the goods exports i.e. ‘Zero Rated Supplies’ made vide aforesaid shipping bill dtd. 20/09/2017;

D. Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the respondent authorities to pay interest @9% to the petitioner herein on the amount of refund of IGST mentioned hereinabove from the date of shipping bill up till the date on which the amount of refund is paid to the petitioner herein, as the same is arbitrarily and illegally withheld by the respondent authorities;

E. Your Lordships may be pleased to grant an ex-parte, ad interim order in favour of the petitioner herein in terms of prayer clause ‘C’ and ‘D’ hereinabove;

F. Since the petitioner are constrained to approach Your Lordships by way of this petition only because of illegal act of respondent authorities, Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the respondent authorities to pay a cost of this litigation to the petitioner herein;

G. Your Lordships may be pleased to grant such other and further relief(s) that may be deemed fit and proper in the interest of justice in favor of the petitioner.”

2 It appears from the materials on record that the writ applicant is engaged in the business of export of refractory material. The writ applicant is registered with the GST authorities.

3 It is the case of the writ applicant that as the goods in the case on hand were exported out of India, the same are to be termed as “Zero Rated Supply” in accordance with Section 16 of the I.G.S.T. Act. According to Section 16 of the I.G.S.T. Act, a registered person making “Zero Rated Supply” has an option to claim refund in accordance with Section 16(3)(b) in a manner as to he may supply goods or services or both, on payment of the integrated tax and claim refund of such tax paid on goods or services or both supplied in accordance with the Section 54 of the Act.

4 The writ applicant, for the purpose of exporting goods out of India, had issued GST invoice, export invoice, shipping bills, export general manifest and bill lading. The details of such documents are as under:

5 The grievance of the writ applicant is that the exports were made in September 2017, but till this date, the I.G.S.T. has not been refunded.

6 In such circumstances, the writ applicant is here before this Court with the present writ application.

7 We have heard Mr. D. K. Trivedi, the learned counsel appearing for the writ applicant and Mr. Utkarsh Sharma, the learned counsel appearing for and on behalf of Mr. Nikunt Raval, the learned Standing Counsel for the respondents.

8 The issue raised in the present writ application is no longer res integra after the decision of this High Court in the case of Amit Cotton Industries vs. Principal Commissioner of Customs, 2019 (19) G.S.T.L. 200 (Guj.). The last communication as regards the subject matter at the end of the writ applicant is dated 3rd January 2020. The letter addressed by the writ applicant to the Deputy Commissioner of Customs reads thus:

“TIN : 33553323882 / CST : 1045677 Dt : 30.10.2009

January 03, 2020

From : M/s. Sri App Enterprises,

No.704/361, 4th Phase KCC Nagar

Bagalur Road, Hosur – 635109

To

Deputy Commissioner of Customs

Custom House, MP & SEZ,

Mundra, Gujarat.

Sub : Request for refund of IGST.

Dear Sir,

01. Kind reference is invited to the above mentioned subject. We hereby inform that we had exported refractory materials during the period from September 2017 to October 2017 at Ghana respectively.

02. Details of invoices, shipping bills, EGM, bill of lading and IGST paid is as mentioned herein below:

03. As provide in Section 16 of IGST Act, 2017, read with Section 54 of CGST Act, 2017 read with Rule 96 of CGST Rules, 2017, the shipping bill itself were required to be considered as refund claims and we were required to be granted refund of the IGST paid amount aggregating to ₹ 100424/-.

04. Further, as we had filed GSTR -1 returns and GSTR-3B returns in regard to the aforesaid period during which aforesaid exports were made, refund was directly required to be credited in our bank account No.535010200004787 in accordance with the aforesaid provisions.

05. Although considerably long time has passed, the said refund amount is not credited in our said bank account or any other account for that matter. Our hard earned money is blocked. We are facing very severe financial stringency on account of such blockage of refund.

06. Since refund is withheld illegally and it is causing severe problems to us, it is requested to kindly credit refund amount in our bank account at the earliest and oblige.

Thanking you,

Your faithfully,

For Sri App Enterprises,

sd/-

Authorized Signatory”

9 Till this date, there has been no response.

10 In view of the aforesaid, we allow this writ application directing the respondents to immediately sanction the refund of the I.G.S.T. paid in regard to the goods exported i.e. the Zero Rated Supply with 9% simple interest from the date of the shipping bills till the date of actual refund.

11 With the aforesaid, this writ application stands disposed of.