The Union Minster of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman said that during the second refund fortnight, ₹ 6,087 crore IGST refunds and ₹ 1, 548 crore ITC refunds were sanctioned by CBIC. Presenting the Union Budget 2019-20 in Parliament today, she said that in case of IGST refunds for goods exported out of India, the percentage of amount of refund claims disposed by CBIC is already more than 90%.

The Finance Minister further said that merchant exporters have to pay nominal GST of 0.1 percent for procuring goods from domestic suppliers for export. This was done in order to provide a big thrust to the growth of the export sector and resolve their working capital issues. The permanent solution to cash blockage is e-Wallet scheme which is proposed to be launched with effect from 01.04.2020.

Nirmala Sitharamanstated that e-way Bill system for inter-State movement of goods has been implemented from 01.04.2018. This system, for intra-State movement, has also been brought into force in a staggered manner by 16.06.2018. Till 31.05.2019 around 66.45 crore e-waybills have been generated including 37.11 crore e-way bills for intra-State movement.

GST refund processing: majority of export IGST claims disposed and measures introduced to ease exporters' cashflow. CBIC accelerated processing and sanctioning of export-related GST refunds, resolving a large share of IGST refund claims for exported goods and disbursing input tax credit refunds to ease exporters' liquidity. Merchant exporters were required to pay a nominal GST when procuring domestically for export to reduce working capital strain. A proposed e-Wallet scheme is intended as a permanent solution to cash blockage, while the e-Way Bill system has been implemented for inter-State and phased for intra-State movements, yielding extensive usage.