HYDERABAD: The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has sanctioned Rs 86.49 crore as the refund of tax claimed by 122 businesses from the city.A total Rs 93.97 crore was claimed by the end of the financial year 2017-18 by 144 businesses. CBEC has disbursed Rs 44.59 crore to 81 of those who had applied so far.The sanctioning of these amounts comes at the end of the financial year 2017-18 when companies are closing their account books.
The refunds are claimed using the form RFD-01a of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) for the taxes, cess and interest paid for zero-rated supplies (items with 0 per cent tax) paid.The form is a temporary measure which has been introduced until the online facility to enable claims of refunds becomes active.The refund claims can be made quarterly for taxpayers with turnover below Rs 1.5 crore, meanwhile, rest have to file claims on a monthly basis.
“There is no need for businesses to fear that their claims will be rejected. We have done a fair evaluation of the applications to sanction the amount,” said a CBEC official, who did not wish to be named.Under the present system, the validation of Input Tax Credit(ITC) and refund claims made under GST were to be sanctioned after invoice matching where both the buyer and the supplier invoices (GSTR-1 and GSTR-2) are matched. However, the invoice matching like the online application for refunds is yet to come in place.
“There is no mechanism of invoice matching at the moment where you can validate if the person you are buying from is paying tax or not.
This was the same case when Value Added Tax (VAT) was being implemented, “ says Preeti Khurana, chief editor, ClearTax, a tax and financial solutions firm.” “Any entity doing a book closure must validate the credit balances they are reporting. They may have to audit and be sure that this credit amount is allowed to them,” she added.