In order to sort out the problems being faced by the exporters for refund claims of GST two ‘Special Drive Refund Fortnight’ were organized from 15.3.2018 to 29.3.2018 and from 31.5.2018 to 16.6.2018.

As a result, most of the claims filed till 30.04.2018 have been sanctioned. IGST refunds amounting to ₹ 21,142 crore and RFD-01A refunds totalling ₹ 16,920 crore has been sanctioned by CBIC and State Governments as on 16.06.2018. 

Government has also taken other measures to expedite the refund of GST to exporters which include certain common errors hindering disbursal of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) refund and solutions thereof, permitting manual intervention for corrections in figures by customs officers. Moving a step ahead for the ease of exporters, in case of refund of IGST where there is a mis-match of invoice details as filed in the Shipping Bill and GST Returns cases, an alternate mechanism with officer’s interface has been developed and circulated.

 In order to ensure smooth operation of the prescribed procedure and clearing the backlog of refund of IGST paid on export of goods, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has directed Custom Houses to open a dedicated cell and e-mail address for the purpose of facilitating the pending IGST refund cases and Custom Houses have been directed to give wide publicity to this step. Over a period of time various pro-active measures have been taken in consultation with GSTN, IT wing of customs and field formations, as a result of which most of the errors have been rectified and IGST refunds have been sanctioned. 

 This information was given by the Minister of State of Commerce and Industry, C. R. Chaudhary, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

IGST refund facilitation: new officer-interface and dedicated customs cells streamline exporters' refund processing and manual corrections permitted to correct mismatches. Procedural and IT measures were implemented to expedite disbursal of IGST refunds to exporters, including two concentrated refund drive operations, permissive manual corrections by customs officers, an officer interface mechanism to address Shipping Bill GST return mismatches, and directions for Custom Houses to open dedicated cells with email contacts to facilitate pending refund cases.