Section 54 of the CGST Act, 2017 – Refund —Limitation period -- The petitioner prayed for direction against the respondents to re-credit amount of Rs.3,37,076/- in electronic credit ledger of the petitioner with interest. The petitioner was granted the refund of Rs. 11,421/- and the claim of Rs. 3,37,076/- was rejected on the ground that it was time barred. The Respondents relied on Circular dated 15.11.2017, which provides that application for refund of unutilised ITC on inputs or input services used in making zero-rated supplies shall be filed in FORM GST RFD01A in the common portal. Since the physical submission of the application along with documents was on 17.10.2019, it was beyond the period of two years and therefore time barred. The court observed that the petitioners filed their refund application in the common portal on 28.12.2018 and ARN was generated. The refund claim was considered as time barred stating that the application was liable to be treated to have been filed on 17.10.2019 and not on 28.12.2018. The court further observed that the date of filing of the application by the petitioner on common portal would be liable to be treated as date of filing claim for refund to the satisfaction of requirement of Section 54  and Rule 89 of the Rules. The procedure evolved in Circular dated 15.11.2017 cannot operate as delimiting condition on the applicability of statutory provisions.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court directed the respondents to re-credit the amount of Rs.3,37,076/- in the electronic credit ledger of the petitioner with interest at the rate of 9% p.a. from the date of order of rejection of the claim till realisation.