Rs 41,548 crore sanctioned as GST refunds

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has sanctioned Rs 41,548 crore as total Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund till June 16.

This was in compliance with the Centre's commitment to liquidate all pending GST refunds filed till April 30.

The second "Special Drive Refund Fortnight" to process pending GST refunds was launched from May 31 to June 16. During the first Refund Fortnight from March 15 to 29, an amount of Rs 5350 crore was sanctioned.

By the end of June 16, Rs 6,087 crore Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) refund was sanctioned, read a statement.

As part of the second Refund Fortnight, about 1,68,191 shipping bills have been processed and IGST refund claims of about 9,293 exporters have been sanctioned including about 3500 new exporters, whose refunds had been held up, have got their refund sanctioned.

During the period, special refund cells manned by experienced staff were put in place throughout the country. Exporter awareness campaigns using both print media and social media were carried out so that the benefit could be extended to maximum exporters. Issues which threw new challenges while sanctioning of refunds were clarified by circulars and advisories among others.

The amount of RFD-01A refund claims received by the Centre as on April 30 was Rs 9,816 crores. The target for the Refund Fortnight was to dispose off this amount. During the refund fortnight, an amount of Rs. 1,548 crores was sanctioned by the Centre and Rs. 2,290 crores by the states.

This takes the amount of RFD-01A refund claims disposed, as on June 16, by the Centre to Rs 10,824 crore and by the states to Rs. 7,287 crore. The total amount of RFD-01A claims disposed off stands at Rs 18,111 crore.

In all, Rs 21,142 crore (IGST refunds), Rs. 9,923 crore (RFD-01A refund by CBIC) and Rs 6,997 crore (RFD-01A refund by States) all totalling Rs 38,062 crore has been sanctioned till June 16.