Exporters need not pay IGST if bond/undertaking furnished

Exporters can furnish bond or letter of undertaking instead of paying Integrated GST at the time of exporting goods and services with effect from July 1.
In case the IGST has been paid, the exporters can seek refund of the tax paid, according to a Customs circular on export procedure in the GST regime.
IGST is levied on the supply of any goods and services in the course of inter-state trade or commerce. As per the IGST Act, export and import of goods and services are deemed to be a supply in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.
"Supplies of goods and services for exports have been categorised as 'Zero Rated Supply' implying that goods could be exported under bond or Letter of Undertaking without payment of integrated tax followed by claim of refund of unutilised input tax credit or on payment of integrated tax with provision for refund of the tax paid," it said.

For seeking IGST refund, an exporter will not be required to file any application as the shipping bill having IGST invoice details shall be deemed to be an application for refund of taxes paid.
It further said that formats of shipping bill have been modified to make them complaint with the GST laws.

The exporter claiming refund of unutilised input tax credit will file an application electronically through the GSTN.
"The application for refund shall be filed on the GST Network portal after the goods or services is delivered.
With regard to sealing of container at the time of export, the CBEC has decided to introduce the system of self- sealing. Earlier the sealing had to be done under the supervision of revenue officials.

"It is the endeavour of the Board to create a trust based environment where compliance in accordance with the extant laws is ensured by strengthening risk management system and Intelligence setup of the department. Accordingly, Board has decided to lay down a simplified procedure for stuffing and sealing of export goods in containers," the circular said.
The self-sealing procedure would be effective from September 1.
"A future date has been prescribed since the returns under GST have been permitted to be filed by September 10 and also with the purpose to give enough time to the stakeholders to adapt to the new procedures.

"Therefore, as a measure of facilitation, the existing practice of sealing the container with a bottle seal under Central Excise supervision or otherwise would continue," it said.