ORDER
M.V. Ravindran, Member (J)
1. This appeal is directed against order-in-appeal dt. 20th July 2006 vide which Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) had allowed the appeal filed by the respondent.
2. The respondent is absent despite notice nor there is any request for adjournment.
3. Heard the Ld. SDR and perused the records. It is seen from the record that the issue in this case is of refund of Service Tax paid by the respondents in excess to the authorities. The Ld. Commissioner (Appeal) has allowed the appeal of the respondent on the following findings:
Appellants have pleaded that the payable service tax was Rs. 3,82,496/- whereas they have paid more tax i.e. Rs. 4,36,013/-. They had claimed refund for the quarter Oct. 2003 to Dec. 2003. They had adjusted the amount for the next quarter i.e. Jan. 2004 to March 2004. They submitted a refund claim for the quarter Jan. 2004 to March 2004. The appellant submitted a refund claim which was within the prescribed time limit.
Appellants have pleaded that they could not attend hearing due to some unavoidable reasons. Anyway it was a case of excess tax payment. In fact they had paid more. Since, no revenue loss was involved there was no reason as to why one more opportunity of hearing could not be given. They do not have a history of tax evasion.
Records are clearly verifiable as per the bills raised and amount actually received by them. Based on this they have prepared a financial statement of service tax payable and service tax paid and difference has been computed to arrive at the refund amount.
It can be seen from the above reproduced portion from the order that Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) has not clearly spelt out as to what kind of verification was done by him. It seems that Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) has passed the impugned order without any reasoning and whether he has verified data himself, hence to my mind the order seems to be a non-speaking order and requires to be set aside.
4. Accordingly, the impugned order is set aside and the matter is remanded back to the Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) to re-consider the issue afresh and pass a speaking order, The Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) shall grant an opportunity of personal hearing to the respondent before coming to any conclusion. The appeal is allowed by way of remand.
(Dictated in court)