Delhi High Court asks taxman to process Flipkart India's ₹6.63 crore claim in three weeks

Criticising an officer of value-added tax (VAT) department for acting contrary to the clear mandate of refund within two months, the Delhi High Court on Monday asked the tax authorities to process Flipkart India's claim of around ₹6.63 crore with interest within three weeks.

A division bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma said "...we note that the respondents (VAT tax officer) clearly appear to have acted arbitrarily in making numerous adjustments post May 31, 2015 and, thus illegally depriving the petitioner (Flipkart) of the refund as claimed."

Flipkart had moved the HC seeking a direction to the VAT authorities to process its August 2020 application seeking refund of around Rs 6.63 crore with interest on the ground that its refund application of March 31, 2015 was liable to be decided within the statutory timeframe of two months as prescribed in Section 38(3)(a)(ii) of the Delhi Value Added Tax Act, 2004.


In 2015, Flipkart submitted a revised return for quarter ended March 31, 2014 and sought a refund of over ₹11.40 crore. However, the DVAT officer adjusted the refund claim amount against other tax demands raised later than two months.