Fees, Penalty Refund claim limit

[Krishnamurthy V]

As per section 54(14), refund claim less than ₹ 1000 can not be claimed. Whether it is applicable for claiming refund of fees / penalty / Excess cash. Please advice.

[Alkesh Jani]

Sir,

The Section 54(14) of CGST Act, 2017 is given below :-

"(14) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, no refund under sub-section (5) or sub-section (6) shall be paid to an applicant, if the amount is less than one thousand rupees."

The plain reading implies that if any claim of refund is filed under Sub-section (5) of Sub-section (6) of Section 54, the amount of refund claim shall not be less than one thousand rupees. However, it does not apply to refund claim filed under other than sub-section (5) & (6).

Any person can file refund claim for any other amount under Section 54(1) within two years. The relevant date given at the end of the section may also be taken into account.

Any other views in the matter is high solicited.

Thanks

[KASTURI SETHI]

I agree with Sh.Alkesh Jani Ji.

Refund is admissible. See Section 54(8)(e)

(e) the tax and interest, if any, or any other amount paid by the applicant, if he had not passed on the incidence of such tax and interest to any other person.

Any other amount covers fee, penalty etc.

[Atul Rathod]

Refund can be applied under Sec 54(1). Refund would be granted by order under sec 54(5). Any refund eligible less than 1,000/- under sec 54(5) cannot be paid to applicant in terms of sec 54(14).

Every refund filed under Sec 54(1) would be routed through order passed by officer under Sec 54(5) & restriction for less than ₹ 1,000/- is given in 54(14).

Even for excess cash, penalty, late fee cannot be paid to applicant if the same amounts to less than ₹ 1,000/-.

[KASTURI SETHI]

No Govt. can usurp taxpayer's money nonetheless the jugglery of words in the language of law.

If any Court of law allows relief, Govt. cannot refuse. I have seen people fighting for ₹ 2/- with the Post Office and Govt. had to pay/compensate with cost of litigation. Govt. is not above constitution. Practically no assessee would like to waste time and energy over such trivial matters.

[Krishnamurthy V]

I thank all experts

AI Summary

Refund threshold under GST limits small refunds; fees and penalties may be claimable but often unpaid administratively.
Section 54(14) bars payment of refunds made under the order provisions in sub sections (5) and (6) when the refundable amount is below one thousand rupees; claims can still be lodged under the general claim provision in sub section (1), and categories such as fees, penalties or other amounts are within refund scope, but administrative routing through refund orders may result in non payment of small amounts unless judicial relief is obtained.