Statement 3 in GST Refund Application Query

[Anil Mishra]

Dear Experts,

1. Law - Refund of ITC on export of services without payment of tax is to be filed on basis of payment received during the relevant refund application period. 

2. Query - However, Export invoice was reported in an earlier tax period (for e.g. July) but forex payment is received in in later period (for e.g. August). (RFD 01 for July already filed). Now in such cases, whether while filing RFD 01 for August, wouldnt statement 3 give error that invoice is not matching as per GSTR 1 of August?

[Deepanshu Garg]

No Sir, Statement 3 will not give any error in such a case.

Although the export invoice was reported in GSTR-1 of an earlier period (e.g., July), you can still include it in Statement 3 of RFD-01 for August, i.e., the period in which the foreign exchange realization has occurred. The GST portal allows such reporting, and no validation error will occur as long as the invoice details (invoice number, date, taxable value, etc.) exactly match the details furnished in the original GSTR-1.

This is in line with the refund mechanism, where the claim is based on receipt of payment, not merely invoice issuance.

[Raam Srinivasan Swaminathan Kalpathi]

When an export of service is reported in R-1/ 3B you apply for refund in RFD-01 upon realisation of moneys in foreign currency.  This export of services invoice in July must also have been included while uploading refund application for July.  Now that you have inadvertently omitted the July invoice, your option will be to file another refund application either manually as per Rule 97A or file a supplementary refund application under "Others" category for the month of July.  Thanks

[Shilpi Jain]

Also instead of filing refund application for every month you can see if it is beneficial for you to apply for refund for months clubbed together.

AI Summary

Refund of ITC on export of services can be claimed in the period of forex realization if invoice details match. Refund of input tax credit on export of services without payment of tax is claimed in the period of foreign exchange realization; an invoice reported in an earlier GSTR-1 period may be included in Statement 3 of RFD-01 for the realization period if invoice details exactly match the original GSTR-1 and the portal will not error. If an invoice was omitted earlier, the remedy is filing a manual refund under Rule 97A or a supplementary refund application under the 'Others' category, or clubbing months for a consolidated refund.