Govt to speed up export refund claims under GST

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 16

The government has assured the exporting community that it is keen to see that all their eligible refund claims under GST are considered and sanctioned at the earliest.

In a statement, the Finance Ministry said that unverified estimates of pending GST refunds on account of exports floating around are highly speculative and mostly inaccurate. “It is a fact that while a number of exporters have not been able to get the export refunds so far, others have been granted refunds,” it said.  Many of the errors plaguing the claims for refunds are on account of inadequate familiarisation of the exporters with the GST laws and data entry errors in the various GSTRs and forms.

The statement said that so far more than Rs 10,000 crore has already been sanctioned by CBEC and states. A standard operating procedure applicable to both central and state GST has been put in place by virtue of various circulars and clarifications issued with regard to processing of ITC refund.

GST Council, in its last meeting on March 10, has directed states tax authorities to proactively clear refund claims. CBEC has taken an initiative to observe a special drive refund sanction fortnight from March 15-29 on an all-India scale for which additional staff and infrastructure has been mobilised. Special refund cells manned by experienced staff are being put in place in the country. It asked exporting community to get their errors rectified to enable sanction of refunds. “The government wants to assure the exporters that it is keen to see that all their eligible refund claims are considered and sanctioned at the earliest,” the statement added.