In line with commitment of government to liquidate all pending GST refunds, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has successfully concluded refund fortnight cum special drive from 15th March, 2018 to 31stMarch, 2018.

During the period, all field formations of CBIC worked hardto provide refund relief to the exporters. Special refund cells manned by experienced staff were put in place throughout the country. The exporter awareness campaigns using both print media and social media were carried out so that the benefit can be extended to maximum exporters. All field formations were tasked to go extra mile in order to facilitate the sanctioning of refunds. The Circulars, Instructions etc were issued by CBIC to clarify the issues which threw new challenges while sanctioning of refunds.

The success of these effortsis visible in the amount of refunds sanctioned during this period. By the end of 31st March,2018 another ₹ 4265 crore IGST refund has been sanctioned in the refund fortnight taking the total tally to ₹ 9604 crore. Total 2,73,017 Shipping Bills with the payment of IGST have been filed by the exporterstill 31st January, 2018. The number of Shipping Bills disposed of till 31st March, 2018 is 2,28,829 which is about 83% of those Shipping Bills filed till January end. The eligible IGST claims transmitted by GSTN to Customs of the period till 31stJanuary, 2018 are of ₹ 10,720 crore, out of which ₹ 9,604 crore have been sanctioned which is about 89.6% of those eligible claims transmitted by GSTN.

As regards to ITC refunds, ₹ 1,136 crore has been sanctioned during the special drive making the total figure of ITC sanctioned equal to ₹ 5,510 crore by end of this fiscal. As per the latest available data:

a.    1,61,325 refund applications have been filed in FORM GST RFD-01A on the common portal, in which an amount of ₹ 17,471crore has been claimed. Of these, 60,183 refund applications are in relation to zero rated supplies, in which an amount of ₹ 14,649 crore has been claimed. Taxpayers are required to submit a copy of these RFD-01A application to the jurisdictional tax office, along with all supporting documents.

b.    However, only 26,620 refund applications (out of 1,61,325 applications) have been actually received in the Central or State tax offices. Of these, 17,734 applications have been disposed off.

c.   Of the total amount claimed of ₹ 17,471 crores, an amount of ₹ 8,012 crores has already been sanctioned (Rs. 5,510 crore by Centre and ₹ 2,502 crore by States).

Thus, in all, ₹ 9,604 crore (IGST refunds), ₹ 5,510 crore (ITC refund by Centre) and ₹ 2,502 crore (ITC refund by States) all totalling to ₹ 17,616 crore has been sanctioned.

Apart from this, an amount of ₹ 16,680 crore duty drawback has been disbursed to exporters during the period from 1.7.2017 to 31.03.2018. An amount of ₹ 1,833.25 crore approx. has been disbursed to exporters against RoSL claims during financial year 2017-18.

The momentum gained during this fortnight would be carried on in future. The CBIC is dedicated to sanction all the legitimate refund claims of exporters. The efforts are being made to resolve those issues which are still pending in consultations with GSTN.

GST refund processing shows large-scale sanctioning and high approval rate for IGST and ITC claims. The CBIC conducted a special refund drive combining GSTN-transmitted IGST claim processing with manual adjudication of RFD-01A ITC refund applications, resulting in substantial sanctioning of IGST claims and a high approval rate. The mechanism relied on special refund cells, exporter outreach, and issuance of clarificatory circulars; portal-filed RFD-01A applications required submission of copies to jurisdictional tax offices for disposal. Concurrent duty drawback and RoSL disbursements supplemented exporter liquidity, while outstanding technical and procedural issues remain for resolution with GSTN.