GST refund: Second phase of fast track clearance drive from Thursday

With an estimated Rs 20,000 crore exporters' refund still stuck, the government will launch the second phase of refund fortnight beginning May 31 to fast-track clearances.

"Special Refund Fortnight" to be organised from May 31 to June 14 in which Center and state GST officers will strive to clear all GST refund applications received on or before April 30, 2018," GST@GoI, which is the official twitter handle for GST related matters, tweeted.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta earlier in the day said refund of over Rs 20,000 crore is pending on account of IGST (integrated GST) and ITC (input tax credit).

"Many exporters have not been able to file the refund of ITC due to technical glitches as input tax credit and exports happened in different months," Gupta said.

In the first phase of refund fortnight observed between March 15 to March 30, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had cleared refunds totalling Rs 17,616 crore.

This comprised Rs 9,604 crore of Integrated GST refunds, Rs 5,510 crore ITC refund by the Centre and Rs 2,502 crore ITC refund by states.

GST@GoI in another tweet said that the Special Refund Fortnight is for all GST refunds, including refund of IGST paid on export of goods and all refund claims submitted in FORM GST RFD-01A on or before April 30, 2018.

"All exporters are encouraged to approach their jurisdictional tax offices during the Special Refund Fortnight to clear any pending GST refund claims which were submitted on or before April 30, 2018," it said.

It further asked exporters that refund application in Form GST RFD-01A will not be processed only after a copy of the application is submitted to the jurisdictional tax office along with supporting documents. "Mere online submission is not enough," it added.

The FIEO president also said that since the GST refund process had considerably "slowed down", the federation has urged the Finance Ministry to look into the refund problem and organise a clearance drive to liquidate the pendency and bring the refund process on track.

A majority of the problems, Gupta said, relate to ITC refund which have to be done by the states as well.