GST Refund

[Ethirajan Parthasarathy]

Section 54(1) of CGST Act provides for claiming of any tax, interest if any on such tax or any other amount paid.

Proviso to Sec.54(1) refers to claiming of any balance in Electronic “Cash” Ledger.

ITC neither can be treated as tax paid by the assessee nor it gets reflected in Electronic “Cash” Ledger. ITC appears in Electronic “Credit” Ledger.

Hence, refund of ITC due to inverted rate supplies is entirely governed by section 54(3) and two years time limit from “relevant date” prescribed u/s 54(1) has no relevance of ITC refund which is separately covered u/s 54(3)

In other words, sec.54(3) and sec.54(1) are independent of each other.

From the above, it appears as per sec. 54(3), ITC refund claim can be done at the “end of any tax period” without any time limit of two years from relevant date which is only for sec.54(1)

Is my understanding right. If yes, it is not clear to me though “relevant date” is referred to only in Sec.54(1) why, explanation 2(e) prescribes meaning of relevant date for ITC refund u/s 54 (3)

[PAWAN KUMAR]

Plz check the relevant date meaning, in the section itself, it covers for section 54(3) also, claim of unutilised ITC can be filed at the end of tax period, but it should be within two years bracket from the relevant date which is end of financial year in which such claim arises. Hope your query is clear now. Two years time limit is general and apply on all refunds under section 54.

AI Summary

GST refund of input tax credit requires claim within statutory time limit from the relevant date under refund rules. Refund of unutilised input tax credit must be claimed at the end of a tax period but filed within two years from the relevant date, the end of the financial year in which the claim arises; the defined relevant date in the refund provision applies to input tax credit refunds.