The Chennai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has directed the Central Excise authorities to manually process an assessee’s pending request for issuance of a Discharge Certificate under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 (SVLDRS), observing that the dispute was merely procedural and should not deprive the taxpayer of the benefits of the settlement scheme. 

The bench of Ajayan T.V. (Judicial Member) and Vasa Seshagiri Rao (Technical Member) has observed that manual processing was an appropriate solution in cases where the electronic system failed to complete the statutory process, particularly when the taxpayer had already complied with the payment requirements under the scheme.

During the hearing, the appellant submitted that it had opted for settlement under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 within the prescribed time. Pursuant to the issuance of SVLDRS-3 on 11 February 2020, the company paid the determined amount of ₹1,54,714 on 18 February 2020 with the intention of bringing the pending excise dispute to a close. However, despite making the payment, the appellant did not receive the mandatory SVLDRS Form-4 (Discharge Certificate) because the declaration allegedly remained pending on the department’s portal. 

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Counsel for the appellant argued that the issue was already covered by earlier decisions of the same Bench, including Aurofood Pvt. Ltd. and the appellant’s own previous case. In those matters, the Tribunal had relied upon CBIC Instruction No. 01/2021-CX dated 17 March 2021, which permits manual processing of declarations filed under the SVLDR Scheme where technical or portal-related issues prevent completion of the process.

The appellant therefore requested the Tribunal to issue similar directions requiring the department to manually process its declaration and issue the Discharge Certificate. 

The Department opposed the plea by pointing out that although the appellant had produced proof of payment, the amount had been deposited through a challan rather than through the online portal, implying that the online processing mechanism had not been completed. 

After considering the submissions and examining the record, the Tribunal noted that the controversy did not relate to the taxpayer’s eligibility under the SVLDR Scheme or the genuineness of the payment. Instead, the issue arose purely because of a procedural or technical difficulty in processing the declaration.

Following its earlier decisions, the Bench reiterated that such procedural impediments should not frustrate the objective of the SVLDR Scheme, which was introduced to settle legacy disputes.

Accordingly, the CESTAT directed the Commissioner to examine the matter and manually process the appellant’s request for issuance of the SVLDRS Discharge Certificate within four weeks from the date of receipt of the Tribunal’s order. The appeal was disposed of with these directions.

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