Refund of Education Cess – The petitioner sought a direction to the respondents to refund education cess as well as secondary and higher education cess collected from the petitioner for the period from July, 2004 to January 2015, in terms of notification No. 32/1999 read with 20/2007. The petitioner is an industrial unit located, entitled to certain benefits like exemption from payment of central excise duty by way of 100 % refund of the excise duty paid after adjusting CENVAT credited for a period of 10 years under North-East Industrial Policy, 2007 and notification No 20/2017 dated 24.04.2007. However, education cess as well as secondary and higher education cess were levied and realised from the petitioner. The petitioner contended that since education cess etc. are imposed on excise duty, the same would not be leviable as excise duty itself is exempted under the industrial policy. This Court in an identical case of Kamakhya Plastics Pvt. Ltd –Vs- Union of India decided on 27.08.2018, had directed the respondents to refund the education cess including secondary and higher education cess. The respondent submitted that a decision has been taken by the competent authority in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, to refund such cess irrespective of whether the assessee has approached the High Court or not.
Held that:- The Hon’ble High directed the respondent to refund the education cess including secondary and higher education cess collected from the petitioner during the said period to the petitioner within a period of three months.—Jupiter Coke Industries & Anr. Vs Union of India And 5 Ors. [2019] 10 TAXLOK.COM 131 (Gauhati)