Fin Min ensures ease of doing business for MSMEs

A notification was introduced recently in the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) system by the Ministry of Finance to address problems received from trade associations which have hindered sanction of refund of Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) paid on exports and to ensure ease of doing business.

According to the notification, where the aggregate IGST refund amount for the said period is upto Rs. 10 lakhs, the exporter shall submit proof of payment (self-certified copy of challans) of IGST payment to the concerned Customs office at the port of export.

However, where the aggregate IGST refund amount for the said period is more than Rs. 10 lacs, the exporter shall submit proof of payment (self-certified copy of challans) of IGST to the concerned Customs office at the port of export along with a certificate from chartered account that the shortfall amount has been liquidated.

Seeking resolution of problems which have hindered sanction of refund of IGST paid on exports, representations were received from the exporters, earlier.

But, the representations received when clubbed with the analysis of data received from GSTN shows that the exporters have committed mistakes while filing GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B.

This is believed to an interim solution subject to undertakings/submission of CA certificates by the exporters and the data provided by GSTN has revealed that this validation has failed in a number of cases.

The cases where there is no short payment, the Customs policy wing would prepare a list of exporters whose cumulative IGST amount paid against exports and interstate domestic outward supplies, for the period July' 2017 to March' 2018 mentioned in GSTR-3B is greater than or equal to the cumulative IGST amount indicated in GSTR-1 for the same period.

GSTN should send a confirmatory e-mail to the exporters concerning the transmission of records to Customs EDI system. A copy of the certificate is required to be submitted to the jurisdictional GST office.

In such cases where short payment is involved, IGST amount paid against exports and interstate domestic outward supplies together, for the period of July' 2017 to March' 2018 mentioned in GSTR-3B is less than the cumulative IGST amount indicated in GSTR-1 for the same period.

E-mails are to be sent by GSTN to each exporter to inform the exporter that their records are held up due to a short payment of IGST.

The exporters would have to make the payment of IGST equal to the short payment in GSTR 3B of subsequent months to make sure that the total IGST refund being claimed in the Shipping Bill/GSTR-1 is paid.

When the aggregate IGST refund amount for the given period is upto Rs 10 lacs, the exporter has to submit proof of payment.

The exporter would also give an undertaking saying, they would return the refund amount if it is found to be not due to them at a later date.

Failure to submit CA certificate shall affect the future IGST refunds of the exporter.