Zirakpur

casunilkumar89@gmail.com
+91 9654058508

CBIC on 15.03.2018 through its circular CIR-37/11/2018-GST has issued various clarifications on concerns over refund against exports of goods or services or both. Further, on 26.10.2018, CBIC has issued circular CIR-70/44/2018-GST and on 31.12.2018, circular CIR-79/53/2018-GST to clarify further issues.

Clarifications issued in these circulars (discussed in this article) are applicable till 25/09/2019. After this, CBIC has issued a Master Circular on 18/11/2019 which is applicable for all refund applications from 26/09/2019 . Refer : CIR-125/44/2019-GST.

Readers can refer our another article on Clarifications on various issues of GST Refunds – w.e.f. 18/11/2019

Let’s discuss these clarifications in detail:-

Non-availment of drawback:-

The third proviso to sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act states that no refund of input tax credit shall be allowed in cases where the supplier of goods or services or both avails of drawback in respect of central tax.

A supplier availing of drawback only with respect to basic customs duty shall be eligible for refund of unutilized input tax credit of central tax / State tax / Union territory tax / integrated tax / compensation cess under the said provision. It is further clarified that refund of eligible credit on account of State tax shall be available even if the supplier of goods or services or both has availed of drawback in respect of central tax.

Exports without LUT:-

Export of goods or services can be made without payment of integrated tax under the provisions of rule 96A of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (the CGST Rules). Under the said provisions, an exporter is required to furnish a bond or Letter of Undertaking (LUT) to the jurisdictional Commissioner before effecting zero rated supplies. A detailed procedure for filing of LUT has already been specified vide Circular No. 8/8/2017 –GST dated 4th October, 2017. It has been brought to the notice of the Board that in some cases, such zero rated supplies have been made before filing the LUT and refund claims for unutilized input tax credit have been filed.

In this regard, it is emphasised that the substantive benefits of zero rating may not be denied where it has been established that exports in terms of the relevant provisions have been made. The delay in furnishing of LUT in such cases may be condoned and the facility for export under LUT may be allowed on ex post facto basis taking into account the facts and circumstances of each case.

Filing frequency of Refunds:

Various representations have been made to the Board regarding the period for which refund applications can be filed. Section 2(107) of the CGST Act defines the term “tax period” as the period for which the return is required to be furnished. The terms ‘Net ITC’ and ‘turnover of zero rated supply of goods/services’ are used in the context of the relevant period in rule 89(4) of CGST Rules. The phrase ‘relevant period’ has been defined in the said sub-rule as ‘the period for which the claim has been filed’.

In many scenarios, exports may not have been made in that period in which the inputs or input services were received and input tax credit has been availed. Similarly, there may be cases where exports may have been made in a period but no input tax credit has been availed in the said period. The above referred rule, taking into account such scenarios, defines relevant period in the context of the refund claim and does not link it to a tax period.

In this regard, it is hereby clarified that the exporter, at his option, may file refund claim for one calendar month / quarter or by clubbing successive calendar months / quarters. The calendar month(s) / quarter(s) for which refund claim has been filed, however, cannot spread across different financial years.

Exports after specified period:

Rule 96A (1) of the CGST Rules provides that any registered person may export goods or services without payment of integrated tax after furnishing a LUT / bond and that he would be liable to pay the tax due along with the interest as applicable within a period of fifteen days after the expiry of three months or such further period as may be allowed by the Commissioner from the date of issue of the invoice for export, if the goods are not exported out of India. The time period in case of services is fifteen days after the expiry of one year or such further period as may be allowed by the Commissioner from the date of issue of the invoice for export, if the payment of such services is not received by the exporter in convertible foreign exchange.

It has been reported that the exporters have been asked to pay integrated tax where the goods have been exported but not within three months from the date of the issue of the invoice for export. In this regard, it is emphasised that exports have been zero rated under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (IGST Act) and as long as goods have actually been exported even after a period of three months, payment of integrated tax first and claiming refund at a subsequent date should not be insisted upon. In such cases, the jurisdictional Commissioner may consider granting extension of time limit for export as provided in the said sub-rule on post facto basis keeping in view the facts and circumstances of each case. The same principle should be followed in case of export of services.

BRC / FIRC for export of goods:

It is clarified that the realization of convertible foreign exchange is one of the conditions for export of services. In case of export of goods, realization of consideration is not a pre-condition. In rule 89 (2) of the CGST Rules, a statement containing the number and date of invoices and the relevant Bank Realisation Certificates (BRC) or Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates (FIRC) is required in case of export of services whereas, in case of export of goods, a statement containing the number and date of shipping bills or bills of export and the number and the date of the relevant export invoices is required to be submitted along with the claim for refund. It is therefore clarified that insistence on proof of realization of export proceeds for processing of refund claims related to export of goods has not been envisaged in the law and should not be insisted upon.

W.e.f. 01.02.2019, it has been allowed to realise the proceeds against export of services in Indian Rupee also where RBI has permitted for the same. Refer following para as amended by CIR – 88/07/2019-GST dated 01.02.2019 :-

Realization of export proceeds in Indian Rupee: Attention is invited to para A (v) Part- I of RBI Master Circular No. 14/2015-16 dated 1st July, 2015 (updated as on 05th November, 2015), which states that “there is no restriction on invoicing of export contracts in Indian Rupees in terms of the Rules, Regulations, Notifications and Directions framed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. Further, in terms of Para 2.52 of the Foreign Trade Policy (2015-2020), all export contracts and invoices shall be denominated either in freely convertible currency or Indian rupees but export proceeds shall be realised in freely convertible currency. However, export proceeds against specific exports may also be realised in rupees, provided it is through a freely convertible Vostro account of a non-resident bank situated in any country other than a member country of Asian Clearing Union (ACU) or Nepal or Bhutan”.

Further, attention is invited to the amendment to section 2(6) of the IGST Act, 2017 which allows realization of export proceeds of services in INR, wherever allowed by the RBI.

Accordingly, it is clarified that the acceptance of LUT for supplies of goods or services to countries outside India or SEZ developer or SEZ unit will be permissible irrespective of whether the payments are made in Indian currency or convertible foreign exchange as long as they are in accordance with the applicable RBI guidelines.

Requirement of invoices for processing of claims for refund:

It has been brought to the notice of the Board that for processing of refund claims, copies of invoices and other additional information are being insisted upon by many field formations.

It was envisaged that only the specified statements would be required for processing of refund claims because the details of outward supplies and inward supplies would be available on the common portal which would be matched. Most of the other information like shipping bills details etc. would also be available because of the linkage of the common portal with the Customs system. However, because of delays in operationalizing the requisite modules on the common portal, in many cases, suppliers’ invoices on the basis of which the exporter is claiming refund may not be available on the system. For processing of refund claims of input tax credit, verifying the invoice details is quintessential. In a completely electronic environment, the information of the recipients’ invoices would be dependent upon the suppliers’ information, thus putting an in-built check-and-balance in the system. However, as the refund claims are being filed by the recipient in a semi-electronic environment and is completely based on the information provided by them, it is necessary that invoices are scrutinized.

A list of documents required for processing the various categories of refund claims on exports is provided in the Table below. Apart from the documents listed in the Table below, no other documents should be called for from the taxpayers, unless the same are not available with the officers electronically:

Documents

 

Type of Refund

Export of Services with payment of tax

(Refund of IGST paid on export of services)

Copy of FORM RFD-01A filed on common portal

Copy of Statement 2 of FORM RFD-01A

Invoices w.r.t. input, input services and capital goods

BRC/FIRC for export of services

Undertaking / Declaration in FORM RFD-01A

 

Export (goods or services) without payment of tax

(Refund of accumulated ITC of

IGST / CGST / SGST / UTGST / Cess)

Copy of FORM RFD-01A filed on common portal
Copy of Statement 3A of FORM RFD-01A generated on common portal
Copy of Statement 3 of FORM RFD-01A
Invoices w.r.t. input and input services
BRC/FIRC for export of services
Undertaking / Declaration in FORM RFD-01A

W.e.f. 04.09.2018 , through its Circular, CBIC has removed the essential requirement to submit purchase invoices to claim refund, relevant paras are reproduced below:-

“2.1 It was clarified vide Circular No. 37/11/2018-GST dated 15th March, 2018 that since the refund claims were being filed in a semi-electronic environment and the processing was completely based on the information provided by the claimants, it becomes necessary that invoices are scrutinized. Accordingly, it was clarified that the invoices relating to inputs, input services and capital goods were to be submitted for processing of claims for refund of integrated tax where services are exported with payment of integrated tax; and invoices relating to inputs and input services were to be submitted for processing of claims for refund of input tax credit where goods or services are exported without payment of integrated tax.

2.2. In this regard, trade and industry have represented that such requirement is cumbersome and increases their compliance cost, especially where the number of invoices is large.

2.3. In view of the difficulties being faced by the claimants of refund, it has been decided that the refund claim shall be accompanied by a print-out of FORM GSTR-2A of the claimant for the relevant period for which the refund is claimed. The proper officer shall rely upon FORM GSTR-2A as an evidence of the accountal of the supply by the corresponding supplier in relation to which the input tax credit has been availed by the claimant. It may be noted that there may be situations in which FORM GSTR-2A may not contain the details of all the invoices relating to the input tax credit availed, possibly because the supplier’s FORM GSTR-1 was delayed or not filed. In such situations, the proper officer may call for the hard copies of such invoices if he deems it necessary for the examination of the claim for refund.

It is emphasized that the proper officer shall not insist on the submission of an invoice (either original or duplicate) the details of which are present in FORM GSTR-2A of the relevant period submitted by the claimant.”


Physical submission of refund claims with jurisdictional proper officer not required :

Due to the non-availability of the complete electronic refund module, a work around was prescribed vide Circular No. 17/17/2017-GST dated 15.11.2017 and Circular No. 24/24/2017-GST dated 21.12.2017, wherein a taxpayer was required to file FORM GST RFD-01A on the common portal, generate the Application Reference Number (ARN), take print-outs of the same, and submit it physically in the office of the jurisdictional proper officer, along with all the supporting documents. It has been learnt that this requirement of physical submission of documents in the jurisdictional tax office is causing undue hardship to the taxpayers. Therefore, in order to further simplify the refund process, the following instructions, in partial modification of the aforesaid circulars, are issued:

a) All documents/undertaking/statements to be submitted along with the claim for refund in FORM GST RFD-01A shall be uploaded on the common portal at the time of filing of the refund application. Circular No. 59/33/2018-GST dated 04.09.2018 specified that instead of providing copies of all invoices, a statement of invoices needs to be submitted in a prescribed format and copies of only those invoices need to be submitted the details of which are not found in FORM GSTR-2A for the relevant period. It is now clarified that the said statement and these invoices, instead of being submitted physically, shall be electronically uploaded on the common portal at the time of filing the claim of refund in FORM GST RFD-01A. Neither the application in FORM GST RFD-01A, nor any of the supporting documents, shall be required to be submitted physically in the office of the jurisdictional proper officer.

b) However, the taxpayer will still have the option to physically submit the refund application to the jurisdictional proper officer in FORM GST RFD-01A, along with supporting documents, if he so chooses. A taxpayer who still remains unallocated to the Central or State Tax Authority will necessarily have to submit the refund application physically. They can choose to do so before the jurisdictional proper officer of either the State or the Central tax authority, as was earlier clarified vide Circular No. 17/17/2017 – GST dated 15.11.2017.

c) The ARN will be generated only after the claimant has completed the process of filing the refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A, and has completed uploading of all the supporting documents/ undertaking/ statements/ invoices and, where required, the amount has been debited from the electronic credit/cash ledger.

d) As soon as the ARN is generated, the refund application along with all the supporting documents shall be transferred electronically to the jurisdictional proper officer who shall be able to view it on the system. The application shall be deemed to have been filed under rule 90(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as “CGST Rules”) on the date of generation of the said ARN and the time limit of 15 days to issue an acknowledgement shall be counted from that date. This will obviate the need for a claimant to visit the jurisdictional tax office for the submission of the refund application. Accordingly, the acknowledgement for the complete application or deficiency memo, as the case may be, would be issued by the jurisdictional tax officer based on the documents so received electronically from the common portal. However, the said acknowledgement or deficiency memo shall continue to be issued manually for the time being.

e) If a refund application is electronically transferred to the wrong jurisdictional officer, he/she shall re-assign it to the correct jurisdictional officer electronically within a period of three days. In such cases, the application shall be deemed to have been filed under rule 90(2) of the CGST Rules only after it has been so reassigned. Deficiency memos shall not be issued in such cases merely on the ground that the applications were received electronically in the wrong jurisdiction. Where the facility of electronic re-assignment is not available, the present arrangement shall continue.

f) It has already been clarified vide Circular No. 70/44/2018-GST dated 26.10.2018 that after the issuance of a deficiency memo, taxpayers would be required to submit the rectified refund application under the earlier Application Reference Number (ARN) only. It is further clarified that the rectified application, which is to be treated as a fresh refund application, will be submitted manually in the office of the jurisdictional proper officer.

It may be noted that the documents/ statements/ undertakings/ invoices to be submitted along with the refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A are the same as have been prescribed under the CGST Rules and various Circulars issued on the subject from time to time. Only the method of submission of these documents/statements/undertakings/invoices is being changed from the physical mode to the electronic mode. It may also be noted that the other stages of processing of a refund claim submitted in FORM GST RFD-01A by the jurisdictional tax officer shall continue to be carried out manually for the time being, as is being presently done.

{Circular No. 79/53/2018-GST dtd 31/12/2018}


Self-declaration for non-prosecution:

It is learnt that some field formations are asking for a self-declaration with every refund claim to the effect that the claimant has not been prosecuted.

The facility of export under LUT is available to all exporters in terms of notification No. 37/2017- Central Tax dated 4th October, 2017, except to those who have been prosecuted for any offence under the CGST Act or the IGST Act or any of the existing laws in force in a case where the amount of tax evaded exceeds two hundred and fifty lakh rupees. Para 2(d) of the Circular No. 8/8/2017-GST dated 4th October, 2017, mentions that a person intending to export under LUT is required to give a self-declaration at the time of submission of LUT that he has not been prosecuted. Persons who are not eligible to export under LUT are required to export under bond.

It is clarified that this requirement is already satisfied in case of exports under LUT and asking for self–declaration with every refund claim where the exports have been made under LUT is not warranted.

Deficiency memo:

It may be noted that if the application for refund is complete in terms of sub-rule (2), (3) and (4) of rule 89 of the CGST Rules, an acknowledgement in FORM GST RFD-02 should be issued. Rule 90 (3) of the CGST Rules provides for communication in FORM GST RFD-03 (deficiency memo) where deficiencies are noticed. The said sub-rule also provides that once the deficiency memo has been issued, the claimant is required to file a fresh refund application after the rectification of the deficiencies.

In this connection, a clarification has been sought whether with respect to a refund claim, deficiency memo can be issued more than once. In this regard rule 90 of the CGST Rules may be referred to, wherein it has been clearly stated that once an applicant has been communicated the deficiencies in respect of a particular application, the applicant shall furnish a fresh refund application after rectification of such deficiencies. It is therefore, clarified that there can be only one deficiency memo for one refund application and once such a memo has been issued, the applicant is required to file a fresh refund application, manually in FORM GST RFD-01A. This fresh application would be accompanied with the original ARN, debit entry number generated originally and a hard copy of the refund application filed online earlier. It is further clarified that once an application has been submitted afresh, pursuant to a deficiency memo, the proper officer will not serve another deficiency memo with respect to the application for the same period, unless the deficiencies pointed out in the original memo remain unrectified, either wholly or partly, or any other substantive deficiency is noticed subsequently.

Discrepancy between values of GST invoice and shipping bill/bill of export:

It has been brought to the notice of the Board that in certain cases, where the refund of unutilized input tax credit on account of export of goods is claimed and the value declared in the tax invoice is different from the export value declared in the corresponding shipping bill under the Customs Act, refund claims are not being processed. The matter has been examined and it is clarified that the zero rated supply of goods is effected under the provisions of the GST laws. An exporter, at the time of supply of goods declares that the goods are for export and the same is done under an invoice issued under rule 46 of the CGST Rules. The value recorded in the GST invoice should normally be the transaction value as determined under section 15 of the CGST Act read with the rules made thereunder. The same transaction value should normally be recorded in the corresponding shipping bill / bill of export.

During the processing of the refund claim, the value of the goods declared in the GST invoice and the value in the corresponding shipping bill / bill of export should be examined and the lower of the two values should be sanctioned as refund.

Amendment through Table 9 of GSTR-1:

It has been reported that refund claims are not being processed on account of mis-matches between data contained in FORM GSTR-1, FORM GSTR-3B and shipping bills/bills of export. In this connection, it may be noted that the facility of filing of Table 9 in FORM GSTR-1, an amendment table which allows for amendments of invoices/ shipping bills details furnished in FORM GSTR-1 for earlier tax period, is already available. If a taxpayer has committed an error while entering the details of an invoice / shipping bill / bill of export in Table 6A or Table 6B of FORM GSTR-1, he can rectify the same in Table 9 of FORM GSTR-1.

It is advised that while processing refund claims on account of zero rated supplies, information contained in Table 9 of FORM GSTR-1 of the subsequent tax periods should be taken into cognizance, wherever applicable.

Field formations are also advised to refer to Circular No. 26/26/2017 – GST dated 29th December, 2017, wherein the procedure for rectification of errors made while filing the returns in FORM GSTR-3B has been provided. Therefore, in case of discrepancies between the data furnished by the taxpayer in FORM GSTR-3B and FORM GSTR-1, the officer shall refer to the said Circular and process the refund application accordingly.

Refund of transitional credit:

Refund of unutilized input tax credit is allowed in two scenarios mentioned in sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act. These two scenarios are zero rated supplies made without payment of tax and inverted tax structure. In sub-rule (4) and (5) of rule 89 of the CGST Rules, the amount of refund under these scenarios is to be calculated using the formulae given in the said sub-rules. The formulae use the phrase ‘Net ITC’ and defines the same as “input tax credit availed on inputs and input services during the relevant period other than the input tax credit availed for which refund is claimed under subrules (4A) or (4B) or both”. It is clarified that as the transitional credit pertains to duties and taxes paid under the existing laws viz., under Central Excise Act, 1944 and Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994, the same cannot be said to have been availed during the relevant period and thus, cannot be treated as part of ‘Net ITC’.

Refund of taxes paid under existing laws:

Sub-sections (3), (4) and (5) of section 142 of the CGST Act provide that refunds of tax/duty paid under the existing law shall be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the existing law. It is observed that certain taxpayers have applied for such refund claims in FORM GST RFD-01A also. In this regard, the field formations are advised to reject such applications and pass a rejection order in FORM GST PMT-03 and communicate the same on the common portal in FORM GST RFD-01B. The procedures laid down under the existing laws viz., Central Excise Act, 1944 and Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994 read with above referred sub-sections of section 142 of the CGST Act shall be followed while processing such refund claims.

Furthermore, it has been brought to the notice of the Board that the field formations are rejecting, withholding or re-crediting CENVAT credit, while processing claims of refund filed under the existing laws. In this regard, attention is invited to sub-section (3) of section 142 of the CGST Act which provides that the amount of refund arising out of such claims shall be refunded in cash. Further, the first proviso to the said sub-section provides that where any claim for refund of CENVAT credit is fully or partially rejected, the amount so rejected shall lapse and therefore, will not be transitioned into GST. Furthermore, it should be ensured that no refund of the amount of CENVAT credit is granted in case the said amount has been transitioned under GST. The field formations are advised to process such refund applications accordingly.

Supplies to Merchant Exporters:

Notification No. 40/2017 – Central Tax (Rate), dated 23rd October 2017 and notification No. 41/2017 – Integrated Tax (Rate) dated 23rd October 2017 provide for supplies for exports at a concessional rate of 0.05% and 0.1% respectively, subject to certain conditions specified in the said notifications.

It is clarified that the benefit of supplies at concessional rate is subject to certain conditions and the said benefit is optional. The option may or may not be availed by the supplier and / or the recipient and the goods may be procured at the normal applicable tax rate.

It is also clarified that the exporter will be eligible to take credit of the tax @ 0.05% / 0.1% paid by him. The supplier who supplies goods at the concessional rate is also eligible for refund on account of inverted tax structure as per the provisions of clause (ii) of the first proviso to sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act. It may also be noted that the exporter of such goods can export the goods only under LUT / bond and cannot export on payment of integrated tax. In this connection, notification No. 3/2018-Central Tax, dated 23.01.2018 may be referred.


Read full circular as issued by CBIC :  CIR-37/11/2018-GSTCIR-59/33/2018-GSTCIR-70/44/2018-GSTCIR-79/53/2018-GST


Status of refund claim after issuance of deficiency memo and re-credit of electronic credit ledger:

Para 7.1 of circular No. 59/33/2018-GST dated the 4th September, 2018 clarifies the intent of law in cases where a deficiency memo is issued in respect of a refund claim. In para 7.2 of the said circular, the practice being followed in the field formations was elaborated and it was clarified that show cause notices are not required to be issued (and consequently no orders are required to be issued in FORM GST RFD-04/06) in cases where refund application is not re-submitted after the issuance of a deficiency memo (in FORM GST RFD-03). It was also clarified that once a deficiency memo has been issued against an application for refund, the amount of Input Tax Credit debited under sub-rule (3) of rule 89 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “CGST Rules”) is required to be re-credited to the electronic credit ledger of the applicant by using FORM GST RFD-01B and the taxpayer is expected to file a fresh application for refund.

The issue has been re-examined and it has been observed that presently the common portal does not allow a taxpayer to file a fresh application for refund once a deficiency memo has been issued against an earlier refund application for the same period. Therefore, it is clarified that till the time such facility is developed, taxpayers would be required to submit the rectified refund application under the earlier Application Reference Number (ARN) only. Thus, it is reiterated that when a deficiency memo in FORM GST RFD-03 is issued to taxpayers, re-credit in the electronic credit ledger (using FORM GST RFD-01B) is not required to be carried out and the rectified refund application would be accepted by the jurisdictional tax authorities with the earlier ARN itself. It is further clarified that a suitable clarification would be issued separately for cases in which such re-credit has already been carried out.

Allowing exporters who have received capital goods under EPCG to claim refund of IGST paid on exports:

Sub-rule (10) of Rule 96 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as “said sub-rule”), restricts exporters from availing the facility of claiming refund of IGST paid on exports in certain scenarios. It was intended that exporters availing benefit of certain notifications would not be eligible to avail the facility of such refund. However, representations have been received requesting that exporters who have received capital goods under the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (hereinafter referred to as “EPCG Scheme”), should be allowed to avail the facility of claiming refund of the IGST paid on exports.

GST Council, in its 30th meeting held in New Delhi on 28th September, 2018, had accorded approval to the proposal of suitably amending the said sub-rule along with sub-rule (4B) of rule 89 of the CGST Rules prospectively in order to enable such exporters to avail the said facility notification No. 54/2018 – Central Tax dated the 9th October, 2018 has been issued to carry out the changes recommended by the GST Council. Alongside the amendment carried out in the said sub-rule through the notification No. 39/2018- Central Tax dated 4th September, 2018 has been rescinded vide notification No. 53/2018 – Central Tax dated the 9th October, 2018.

For removal of doubts, it is clarified that the net effect of these changes would be that any exporter who himself/herself imported any inputs/capital goods in terms of notification Nos. 78/2017-Customs and 79/2017-Customs both dated 13th October, 2017 shall be eligible to claim refund of the IGST paid on exports till the date of the issuance of the notification No. 54/2018 – Central Tax dated the 9th October, 2018 referred to above.

Further, after the issuance of notification No. 54/2018 – Central Tax dated the 9th October, 2018 , exporters who are importing goods in terms of notification Nos. 78/2017-Customs and 79/2017-Customs both dated 13th October, 2017 would not be eligible for refund of IGST paid on exports as provided in the said sub-rule. However, exporters who are receiving capital goods under the EPCG scheme, either through import in terms of notification No. 79/2017-Customs dated 13th October, 2017 or through domestic procurement in terms of notification No. 48/2017-Central Tax, dated 18th October, 2017, shall continue to be eligible to claim refund of IGST paid on exports and would not be hit by the restrictions provided in the said sub-rule. All clarifications issued in this regard vide any Circular issued earlier are hereby superseded.

Scope of rule 96(10) of the CGST Rules:

Rule 96(10) of the CGST Rules, as amended time to time, provides that registered persons, including importers, who are directly purchasing/importing supplies on which the benefit of reduced tax incidence or no tax incidence under certain specified notifications has been availed, shall not be eligible for refund of integrated tax paid on export of goods or services.

For example, an importer (X) who is importing goods under the benefit of Advance Authorization/EPCG, is directly purchasing/importing supplies on which the benefit of reduced/Nil incidence of tax under the specified notifications has been availed. In this case, the restriction under rule 96(10) of the CGST Rules is applicable to X. However, if X supplies the said goods, after importation, to a domestic buyer (Y), on payment of full tax, then Y can rightfully export these goods under payment of integrated tax and claim refund of the integrated tax so paid. However, in the said example if Y purchases these goods from X after availing the benefit of specified notifications, then Y also will not be eligible to claim refund of integrated tax paid on export of goods or services.

Overall, it is clarified that the restriction under rule 96(10) of the CGST Rules, as amended, applies only to those purchasers/importers who are directly purchasing/importing supplies on which the benefit of certain notifications, as specified in the said sub-rule, has been availed.

Re-credit of electronic credit ledger in case of rejection of refund claim:

In case of rejection of claim for refund of unutilized input tax credit on account of ineligibility of the said credit under sub-sections (1),(2) or (5) of section 17 of the CGST Act, or under any other provision of the Act and rules made thereunder the proper officer shall order for the rejected amount to be re-credited to the electronic credit ledger of the claimant using FORM GST RFD-01B. For recovery of this amount, a demand notice shall have to be simultaneously issued to the claimant under section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be. In case the demand is confirmed by an order issued under sub-section (9) of section 73, or sub-section (9) of section 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be, the said amount shall be added to the electronic liability register of the claimant through FORM GST DRC- 07. Alternatively, the claimant can voluntarily pay this amount, along with interest and penalty, if applicable, before service of the demand notice, and intimate the same to the proper officer in FORM GST DRC-03 in accordance with sub-section (5) of section 73 or sub-section (5) of section 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be, read with sub-rule (2) of rule 142 of the CGST Rules. In such cases, the need for serving a demand notice will be obviated.

In case of rejection of claim for refund of unutilized input tax credit, on account of any reason other than the eligibility of credit, the rejected amount shall be re-credited to the electronic credit ledger of the claimant using FORM GST RFD-01B only after the receipt of an undertaking from the claimant to the effect that he shall not file an appeal against the said rejection or in case he files an appeal, the same is finally decided against the claimant, as has been laid down in rule 93 of the CGST Rules.

Consider an example where against a refund claim of Rs.100, only Rs.80 is sanctioned (Rs.15 is rejected on account of ineligible ITC and Rs.5 is rejected on account of any other reason). As described above, Rs.15 would be re-credited with simultaneous issue of notice under section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act for recovery of ineligible ITC. Rs.5 would be re-credited (through FORM GST RFD-01B) only after the receipt of an undertaking from the claimant to the effect that he shall not file an appeal or in case he files an appeal, the same is finally decided against the claimant.

Disbursal of refund amount after sanctioning by the proper officer:

A few cases have come to notice where a tax authority, after receiving a sanction order from the counterpart tax authority (Centre or State), has refused to disburse the relevant sanctioned amount calling into question the validity of the sanction order on certain grounds.

E.g. a tax officer of one administration has sanctioned, on a provisional basis, 90 per cent. of the amount claimed in a refund application for unutilized ITC on account of exports. On receipt of the provisional sanction order, the tax officer of the counterpart administration has observed that the provisional refund of input tax credit has been incorrectly sanctioned for ineligible input tax credit and has therefore, refused to disburse the tax amount pertaining to the same.

It is clarified that the remedy for correction of an incorrect or erroneous sanction order lies in filing an appeal against such order and not in withholding of the disbursement of the sanctioned amount. If any discrepancy is noticed by the disbursing authority, the same should be brought to the notice of the counterpart refund sanctioning authority, the concerned counterpart reviewing authority and the nodal officer, but the disbursal of the refund should not be withheld. It is hereby clarified that neither the State nor the Central tax authorities shall refuse to disburse the amount sanctioned by the counterpart tax authority on any grounds whatsoever, except under sub-section (11) of section 54 of the CGST Act. It is further clarified that any adjustment of the amount sanctioned as refund against any outstanding demand against the claimant can be carried out by the refund disbursing authority if not already done by the refund sanctioning authority.


Disbursal of refund with Interest after stipulated period :

Section 56 of the CGST Act clearly states that if any tax ordered to be refunded is not refunded within 60 days of the date of receipt of application, interest at the rate of 6 per cent (notified vide notification No. 13/2017-Central Tax dated 28.06.2017) on the refund amount starting from the date immediately after the expiry of sixty days from the date of receipt of application (ARN) till the date of refund of such tax shall have to be paid to the claimant. It may be noted that any tax shall be considered to have been refunded only when the amount has been credited to the bank account of the claimant. Therefore, interest will be calculated starting from the date immediately after the expiry of sixty days from the date of receipt of the application till the date on which the amount is credited to the bank account of the claimant. Accordingly, all tax authorities are advised to issue the final sanction orders in FORM GST RFD-06 within 45 days of the date of generation of ARN, so that the disbursement is completed within 60 days by both Central and State Tax Authorities for CGST / IGST / UTGST / Compensation Cess and SGST respectively.

{Circular No. 79/53/2018-GST dtd 31/12/2018}


Treatment of refund applications where the amount claimed is less than rupees one thousand:

Sub-section (14) of section 54 of the CGST Act provides that no refund under sub-section (5) or sub-section (6) of section 54 shall be paid to an applicant, if the amount is less than one thousand rupees.

In this regard, it is clarified that the limit of rupees one thousand shall be applied for each tax head separately and not cumulatively. The limit would not apply in cases of refund of excess balance in the electronic cash ledger. All field formations are requested to reject claims of refund from the electronic credit ledger for less than one thousand rupees and re-credit such amount by issuing an order in FORM GST RFD-01B.

System validations in calculating refund amount along with manner of debit of ITC

Currently, in case of refund of unutilized input tax credit (ITC for short), the common portal calculates the refundable amount as the least of the following amounts:

a) The maximum refund amount as per the formula in rule 89(4) or rule 89(5) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “CGST Rules”) [formula is applied on the consolidated amount of ITC, i.e. Central tax + State tax/Union Territory tax +Integrated tax + Cess(wherever applicable)];

b) The balance in the electronic credit ledger of the claimant at the end of the tax period for which the refund claim is being filed after the return for the said period has been filed; and

c) The balance in the electronic credit ledger of the claimant at the time of filing the refund application.

After calculating the least of the three amounts, as detailed above, the equivalent amount is to be debited from the electronic credit ledger of the claimant in the following order:-

a) Integrated tax, to the extent of balance available;

b) Central tax and State tax/Union Territory tax, equally to the extent of balance available and in the event of a shortfall in the balance available in a particular electronic credit ledger (say, Central tax), the differential amount is to be debited from the other electronic credit ledger (i.e., State tax/Union Territory tax, in this case).

The procedure described in above para, however, is not presently available on the common portal. Till the time such facility is made available on the common portal, the taxpayers are advised to follow the order as explained above for all refund applications filed after the date of issue of this Circular CIR-59/33/2018-GST. However, for applications already filed and pending with the tax authorities, where this order is not adhered to by the claimant, no adverse view may be taken by the tax authorities.

The above system validations are being clarified so that there is no ambiguity in relation to the process through which an application in FORM GST RFD-01A is generated.

Further, it may be noted that the refund application can be filed only after the electronic credit ledger has been debited in the manner specified above, and the ARN is generated on the common portal.


Misinterpretation of the meaning of the term “inputs”:

It has been represented that on certain occasions, departmental officers do not consider ITC on stores and spares, packing materials, materials purchased for machinery repairs, printing and stationery items, as part of Net ITC on the grounds that these are not directly consumed in the manufacturing process and therefore, do not qualify as input. There are also instances where stores and spares charged to revenue are considered as capital goods and therefore the ITC availed on them is not included in Net ITC, even though the value of these goods has not been capitalized in his books of account by the claimant.

In relation to the above, it is clarified that the input tax credit of the GST paid on inputs shall be available to a registered person as long as he/she uses or intends to use such inputs for the purposes of his/her business and there is no specific restriction on the availment of such ITC anywhere else in the GST Act. The GST paid on inward supplies of stores and spares, packing materials etc. shall be available as ITC as long as these inputs are used for the purpose of the business and/or for effecting taxable supplies, including zero-rated supplies, and the ITC for such inputs is not restricted under section 17(5) of the CGST Act. Further, capital goods have been clearly defined in section 2(19) of the CGST Act as goods whose value has been capitalized in the books of account and which are used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of business. Stores and spares, the expenditure on which has been charged as a revenue expense in the books of account, cannot be held to be capital goods.

{Circular No. 79/53/2018-GST dtd 31/12/2018}


Non-consideration of ITC of GST paid on invoices of earlier tax period availed in subsequent tax period:

Presently, ITC is reflected in the electronic credit ledger on the basis of the amount of the ITC availed on self declaration basis in FORM GSTR-3B for a particular tax period. It may happen that the goods purchased against a particular tax invoice issued in a particular month, say August 2017, may be declared in the FORM GSTR-3B filed for a subsequent month, say September 2017. This is inevitable in cases where the supplier raises an invoice, say in August, 2017, and the goods reach the recipient‟s premises in September, 2017. Since GST law mandates that ITC can be availed only after the goods are received, the recipient can only avail the ITC on such goods in the FORM GSTR-3B filed for the month of September, 2017. However, it has been observed that field officers are excluding such invoices from the calculation of refund of unutilized ITC filed for the month of September, 2017.

In this regard, it is clarified that “Net ITC‟ as defined in rule 89(4) of the CGST Rules means input tax credit availed on inputs and input services during the relevant period. Relevant period means the period for which the refund claim has been filed. Input tax credit can be said to have been “availed‟ when it is entered into the electronic credit ledger of the registered person. Under the current dispensation, this happens when the said taxable person files his/her monthly return in FORM GSTR-3B. Further, section 16(4) of the CGST Act stipulates that ITC may be claimed on or before the due date of filing of the return for the month of September following the financial year to which the invoice pertains or the date of filing of annual return, whichever is earlier. Therefore, the input tax credit of invoices issued in August, 2017, “availed‟ in September, 2017 cannot be excluded from the calculation of the refund amount for the month of September, 2017.

{Circular No. 79/53/2018-GST dtd 31/12/2018}


 

 

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *