NEW DELHI:Proper procedures for claiming exporters’ refunds are now in sight. GST Network CEO Prakash Kumar stated on Monday that the portal will launch an online application for processing exporters’ refunds for Integrated GST (IGST) paid by them for August and September. An separate online app for the purpose is set to be launched this week. The move comes in the wake of the GST Council providing interim relief to exporters early this month after teething troubles with GST and the absence of a refund processing system resulted in a strangulation of working capital flows. During the meeting, the Council decided that the refunds for July will be processed and paid by October 10, and for August by October 18.
The Council also decided to impose a nominal 0.1 GST rate till March 31, 2018 for merchant.
According to Kumar, the GST Network (GSTN), which handles IT infrastructure for the tax regime, has started issuing refunds from October 10 to exporters for Integrated GST (IGST) they paid for the month of July, after matching GSTR-3B and GSTR-1. For August and September, while the initial return GSTR- 3B has already been filed, the final return GSTR-1 has not yet been filed.
“A separate online app for claiming Integrated GST (IGST) refunds for August and September would be made available on GSTN portal this week,” Kumar said.
Exporters can save and upload their sales data which are part of GSTR-1 after filling up export details specified on the application. This will then be extracted separately and after exporters digitally sign it, will automatically go to the customs department. The customs department will then validate the information provided in the table with the shipping bill data and also the taxes paid in GSTR-3B. The refund amount would be either credited to exporter’s bank account through ECS or a cheque would be issued.
As per available data, 55.87 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed for July, 51.37 lakh for August and over 42 lakh for September. The easing of the refund process has come as a huge relief to exporters. Over July-August, an estimated `67,000 crore has been accumulated as IGST, of which around `5,000-10,000 crore is expected to be due as refunds to exporters.