Fraction of exporters could have misused GST refund facility, not all: FIEO

Apex exporters' body FIEO on Monday said all traders should not be looked from same prism for GST fraud cases as there could be a fraction who might have misused the facility.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Sharad Kumar Saraf said that it is unfortunate that exporters have been singled out for GST frauds.

He was reacting to a direction of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), which has asked the Directorate General of Foreign Trade to make the accreditation system for star exporters more robust to curb tax fraud.

"Like any other section of the society, there could a fraction of exporters who might have misused the GST refund facility. It will be unfair to subject the entire exporting community for serious checks and investigation based on alleged misuse by limited few," he said in a statement.

He offered his services to help authorities to locate the exporters and helped them in the investigation.

He also said there are many instances where actual payment of GST to the government is very low as compared to IGST refund.

The GST refund has affected the liquidity of exporters since there is a time lag between the payment of ITC and its refund at the time of exports.

He added that unfortunately, the scheme of e-wallet, which has been recommended by the GST Council as early as October 6, 2017, which was expected to be put into operation in April 2018 and then deferred to October 2018, has not yet been rolled out.

The scheme may have helped in easing the liquidity problem of exporters, he said.

The FIEO president said he has written to the government requesting the authorities to discuss the issue across the table and explore solutions to minimise, if not avoid, the revenue leakage all together.