COVID-19 relief: CBIC launches drive for faster clearance of refund claims

With about Rs 18,000 crore of refund claims stuck, the CBIC on Thursday said it has launched a special drive to facilitate disposal of all such pending claims.

The 'Special Refund and Drawback Disposal Drive', which will go on till month end, will ensure priority processing and disposal of all pending refund and drawback claims that are pending as on April 7.

"The focus on refunds and drawback is aimed at providing immediate relief to the business entities, especially MSMEs, which makes it an imperative to ensure that there are no delays," the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said in a letter to Principle Chief Commissioners of Customs and Central Tax.

"For facilitation of exporters, all communication should be done over e-mail wherever email id of the applicant is available," the CBIC said, adding due diligence will be done before sanctioning any refund claims.

The Finance Ministry had on Wednesday said that to provide relief during COVID-19 it has decided to issue all pending GST and Custom refunds which would benefit around 1 lakh business entities, including MSME.

"Thus, the total refund granted will be approximately Rs 18,000 crore," it had said.

Principle Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioners of Customs, Central Tax will monitor the refund claim settlement on a daily basis.