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4. The Petitioners have been importing goods since many years and the imported goods are sold to major tile manufacturing units across the country. The goods are imported through Mundra Port in Kandla and the Ahmedabad Airport. The Petitioners had approximate annual turnover of Rs. 50 crores in the previous financial year and it discharges crores of rupees by way of tax under the GST Acts.

5. In so far as import transactions are concerned, importers such as the Petitioners are required to pay customs duty as well as the IGST payable on such imports before clearance for home consumption. In other words for imports the IGST is paid prior to commencement of movement of goods from the port/airport.

6. Thus, it appears that the writ applicant No.1 is a Private Limited Company and the writ applicant No.2 is its Director and Authorized Signatory. The Company is engaged in the business of import and sale of Ceramic Pigment Ink which is used as a colouring substance in the manufacturing of the ceramic tiles. The writ applicants had placed an order for a consignment of Ceramic Pigment Ink from its principal operating in Spain. The import took place through the Ahmedabad Airport. The writ applicants duly filed the bill of entry for home consumption and also paid the applicable customs duty as well as the IGST payable on the imports by the importers. It appears that while the goods were being transported from the Ahmedabad Airport to the warehouse of the writ applicants situated in Vadodara, the vehicle was detained by the GST Authorities, more particularly, the respondent No.2. In fact, the truck with the goods was intercepted at the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Express Way. It is the case of the writ applicants that the transporter produced all the documents relating to the goods including the bill of entry for home consumption evidencing payment of the IGST on the transaction. The truck, however, came to be detained by the officer concerned on the ground of absence of the e-way bill in respect of the goods.

(v) Import of goods or services is treated as inter-state supplies and is subject to IGST, besides the applicable customs duties.

(vi) CGST, SGST & IGST are levied at rates to be mutually agreed upon by the Centre and the States. The rates would be notified on the recommendation of the GST Council. To begin with, the GST Council has decided that GST would be levied at four rates viz. 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. The schedule or list of items that would fall under each slab has been worked out. Besides these rates, a cess would be imposed on "demerit" goods to raise resources for compensating States as States may lose revenue owing to implementing GST.

(xiii) The credit of CGST paid on inputs may be used only for paying CGST on the output, and the credit of SGST paid on inputs may be used only for paying SGST. Input Tax Credit (ITC) of CGST cannot be used for payment of SGST and vice versa. In other words, the two streams of Input Tax Credit (ITC) cannot be cross-utilised, except in specified circumstances of inter-state supplies for payment of IGST.

(xiv) Accounts would be settled periodically between the Centre and the States to ensure that the credit of SGST used for payment of IGST is transferred by the Exporting State to the Centre. Similarly, IGST used for payment of SGST would be transferred by the Centre to the Importing State. Further, the SGST portion of IGST collected on B2C supplies would also be transferred by the Centre to the destination State. The transfer of funds would be carried out based on information contained in the returns filed by the taxpayers.