NEW DELHI: The finance ministry on Friday sought to reassure exporters that the GST Council was looking at ways to ensure timely refund of taxes and that all options, including manual processing of refunds, were under consideration.
The ministry also asked states and central government authorities to expeditiously clear the pre-GST refund claims of central excise and VAT, “so that the exporters will get immediate relief”.
On refunds under the GST regime, the ministry said that the committee was trying to find a way of giving refund by linking GSTR 1 with GSTR 3B forms. GSTR-3B is the initial simplified return that businesses have to file. GSTR-1 is the final sales return to be filed every month.
The authorities would be in a position to process the refund applications for July, where GSTR 1 form has been already filed by businesses. “Therefore, the exporters who have not yet filed form GSTR 1 for July, may be advised to file it immediately and not to wait till the deadline,” the ministry said, adding that GSTN application for refund is also getting ready.
The ministry said a lot of people are speculating that refund for inputs in case of exports under GST will be available only when regular form GSTR 3 is filed for every month, but “this is not the case”.
The committee had earlier this week interacted with the exporters of eight sectors, who made detailed presentations on the problems being faced by them.
The committee would present the solution to the problems before the GST Council as soon as possible.Seeking to allay the apprehensions about the problem of blockage of working capital for exporters post-GST, it said, “There are various figures also being discussed on the blockage of such funds, which are wild estimates. Such media reports are not based on facts.”
GST forms
GSTR-3B is the initial simplified return that businesses have to file. GSTR-1 is the final sales return to be filed every month.