WITHDRAWAL OF GST REFUND

GST Refund

Section 54 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘Act’ for short) provides for the refund of service tax. Section 54(1) of the Act provides that any person claiming refund of any tax and interest, if any, paid on such tax or any other amount paid by him, may make an application before the expiry of 2 years from the relevant date. A registered person may claim refund of any balance in the electronic cash ledger.  Section 54(7) of the Act provides that the refund shall be made within 60 days from the date of receipt of application for refund, if the application is proper in all aspects.

Rule 89 of Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (‘Rules’ for short) provides the procedure for getting the refund from the Department when the tax is paid in excess or for any other reason. Rule 89 (1) provides that any person, except the persons covered under notification issued under section 55, claiming refund of any balance in the electronic cash ledger in accordance with the provisions of section 49(6) or any tax, interest, penalty, fees or any other amount paid by him, other than refund of integrated tax paid on goods exported out of India, may file, subject to the provisions of rule 10B, an application electronically in FORM GST RFD-01 through the common portal.

Acknowledgement

On receipt of the application that relates to a claim for refund from the electronic cash ledger, an acknowledgement in FORM GST RFD-02 shall be made available to the applicant through the common portal electronically, clearly indicating the date of filing of the claim for refund and the time period of 60 days shall be counted from such date of filing.

The application for refund, other than claim for refund from electronic cash ledger, shall be forwarded to the proper officer who shall, within a period of 15 days of filing of the said application, scrutinize the application for its completeness and where the application is found to be complete in terms of sub-rule (2), (3) and (4) of rule 89, an acknowledgement in FORM GST RFD-02 shall be made available to the applicant through the common portal electronically, clearly indicating the date of filing of the claim for refund and the time period specified in sub-section (7) of section 54 (60 days) shall be counted from such date of filing.

Withdrawal of refund application

Earlier the taxpayers had no option to withdraw their refund applications, if they have committed any mistakes, while filing the application. A functionality has now been implemented for the taxpayer, to withdraw an already filed refund application, by filing Form GST RFD-01W (until the Refund Processing Officer issues an acknowledgement in Form GST RFD-02 or a deficiency memo in Form GST RFD-03).

The refund application may be withdrawn for the following reasons-

• The applicant filed the refund application by mistake;
• The applicant filed Refund Application under wrong category;
• The applicant mentioned wrong details in the refund application;
• Others.

Rule 90(5) was inserted vide Notification No. 15/2021, dated 18.05.2021 which came into effect from 18.05.2021. Rule 90(5) provides that the applicant may, at any time before-

• issuance of provisional refund sanction order in FORM GST RFD-04; or
•  final refund sanction order in FORM GST RFD-06; or
•  payment order in FORM GST RFD-05; or
•  refund withhold order in FORM GST RFD-07; or
•  notice in FORM GST RFD-08, in respect of any refund application filed in FORM GST RFD-01

withdraw the said application for refund by filing an application in FORM GST RFD-01W.

The withdrawal application shall be filed in the GST portal. The withdrawal may be made till the status of ‘Acknowledgement’ status is received. After that no withdrawal can be made in the GST portal.

Procedure

• Login to the GST portal. Dashboard will be displayed;
• Click Services > User Services > My Applications option;
• In ‘My application’ page select ‘Refunds’ button from top to down list;
• elect the submission period in the From Date field and To Date field.Click SEARCH. To view the filed refund applications;
• Click the ARN/RFN hyperlink the tax payer wants to open; it would take the tax payer to the case details page of that refund application;
• select the APPLICATIONS tab; this tab provides the tax payer an option to view the filed refund application, along with its supporting documents in PDF mode;
• Click the Withdraw Refund Application button to withdraw the refund application filed by the tax payer;
• Application for Withdrawal of Refund Application page will be displayed;
• Click the Generate Reference Number hyperlink to generate the reference number;
• Select the Reason for withdrawing Refund Application from the drop-down list;
• Click the Choose File button to upload any supporting document and mention name of the document in the text box below File Name. (Maximum 4 supporting documents in PDF format with maximum size of 5 MB is allowed);
•  Select the Declaration checkbox and select the name of the Authorised Signatory from the drop-down list;
• Enter the Place from where the tax payer is filing the application;
• Click PREVIEW;
• Application for Withdrawal of Refund Application is downloaded in PDF format in draft version.

Once a Refund Application has been withdrawn by the taxpayer, the taxpayer will not be able to take any further action on the refund application.  The Electronic Cash/Credit Ledger debited at the time of filing refund application will be credited back.  An e-mail and SMS will be sent to the taxpayer once refund application filed on the GST Portal is withdrawn. In case of withdrawal of refund application, the tax payer will be able to file a fresh refund application for the same/part thereof/clubbing with different period again. The facility to file refund application for the selected period and refund type would be available as if the refund application was never filed by the tax payer.

Now the tax payer can click the GST RFD-01 W link to download the filed Application for Withdrawal of Refund. The status of the ARN is changed to 'Refund Application Withdrawn'.