It took 3 years and an unanswered legal notice, but Coca-Cola just got its Rs 45 lakh back

Nearly three years after a GST dispute first surfaced, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages has won its case, with a Bengaluru Commercial Court ordering an e-waste recycler to pay Rs 45.2 lakh along with 12% annual interest.

It began in March 2023 with a routine vendor agreement: Coca-Cola’s Kodigehalli Gate unit contracted Uttar Pradesh’s Hin Green E-Waste Recycling Pvt Ltd to handle the collection, removal and disposal of e-waste from all of the company’s offices and facilities nationwide.

Things unravelled over tax. Scrap-disposal invoices for 2022-23 were billed at 5% GST, but Coca-Cola later found the rate had been revised to 18%, retrospectively from 18 July. It sent the recycler an updated table of scrap items along with a credit note and a revised debit note to reflect the correction.

The company followed up by email, asking the recycler to claim input tax credit before filing its October 2023 returns. The recycler wrote back acknowledging the message and promising to send details ‘in due course’ — details that never arrived. By 20 March 2024, the recycler had denied liability outright.

A legal notice went out on 15 July 2025 and was met with silence. Pre-institution mediation was then attempted and failed, since the recycler did not show up, and the process was closed as a ‘non-starter’.

Coca-Cola took the matter to court in March 2026. The recycler appeared through a lawyer but never filed a written defence. After reviewing the unchallenged evidence, 85th additional city civil and sessions judge Arjun S Mallur at the Commercial Court ruled the recycler liable, directing it to pay Rs 45.2 lakh with 12% annual interest from the date of the suit, plus costs.

Wikimedia Commons/by M0tty