Sanofi India's Refund Application Rejected by State GST for ₹11.6 Lakhs

Sanofi India Ltd has disclosed that the Deputy Commissioner, State GST, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, rejected its refund application of INR 11,62,853 for the period 2014-15 to July 2017. The rejection was based on the grounds that the refund claim, arising from a debit to the Electronic Credit Ledger for a mandatory pre-deposit under the Central Excise Act, 1944, was not considered 'tax' eligible for refund under the CGST Act, 2017. The authority also stated that the matter falls under Central GST, not State GST, making the application non-maintainable. Sanofi India plans to file appeals and states there is no material financial or operational impact.