Govt disburses GST refunds of Rs 17.6K crore to exporters

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Monday announced the disbursal of Rs 17,616 crore worth Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds to exporters, along with the approval of nearly 90 percent of IGST claims.

Addressing a press conference here, CBIC Chairman Vanaja Sarna noted that the disbursal was primarily a result of the recently concluded refund fortnight which was held from March 15 to 31.

"By the end of March 31, another Rs. 4265 crore IGST refund has been sanctioned in the refund fortnight, taking the total tally to Rs. 9604 crore," she added.

As per the CBIC, a total of 2,73,017 shipping bills with the payment of IGST have been filed by the exporters till January 31, while the number of shipping bills disposed of till March 31 is 2,28,829 (83 percent of the January bills).

Meanwhile, eligible IGST claims transmitted by the GST Network (GSTN) to customs of the period till January 31 are of Rs 10,720 crore, out of which Rs 9,604 crore has been sanctioned, thus entailing the completion of 89.6 percent of those eligible claims transmitted by the GSTN.

As regards to input tax credit (ITC) refunds, Rs. 1,136 crore was sanctioned during the CBIC's special drive, taking the total figure of ITC sanctioned to Rs. 5,510 crore by the end of the fiscal.

1,61,325 refund applications have been filed in FORM GST RFD-01A on the common portal, in which an amount of Rs. 17,471 crore has been claimed. Of these, 60,183 refund applications are in relation to zero rated supplies, in which an amount of Rs. 14,649 crore has been claimed. Taxpayers are required to submit a copy of these RFD-01A application to the jurisdictional tax office, along with all supporting documents, the CBIC said.

However, only 26,620 refund applications (out of 1,61,325 applications) have been actually received in the Central or State tax offices, out of which 17,734 applications have been disposed off, the chamber added.

In totality, Sarna noted that Rs 9,604 crore (IGST refunds), Rs. 5,510 crore (ITC refund by Centre) and Rs 2,502 crore (ITC refund by States) were sanctioned, adding up to Rs 17,616 crore.

Apart from this, the CBIC chief said Rs 16,680 crore duty drawback was disbursed to exporters during the period from July 1 last year to March 31, while approximately Rs 1,833.25 crore was disbursed to exporters against remission of state levies (RoSL) claims during FY 2017-18.