AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Fully electronic refund process through FORM GST RFD-01 and single disbursement.
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....edgement of the refund application, issuance of deficiency memo, passing of provisional/final order, payment advice etc. was also being done manually. In order to make the process of submission of the refund application electronic, Circular No. 79/53/2018-GST dated 31.12.2018 was issued wherein it was specified that the refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A, along with all supporting documents, shall be submitted electronically. However, various post submission stages of processing of the refund application continued to be manual. 2. The necessary capabilities for making the refund procedure fully electronic, in which all steps of submission and processing shall be undertaken electronically, have been deployed on the common portal with effect from 26.09.2019. Accordingly, the Circulars issued earlier laying down the guidelines for manual submission and processing of refund claims need to be suitably modified and a fresh set of guidelines needs to be issued for electronic submission and processing of refund claims. With this objective and in order to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of law across field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers confe....
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....tements/declarations/undertakings which are part of FORM GST RFD-01 itself, and also uploading of other documents/invoices which shall be required to be provided by the applicant for processing of the refund claim. A comprehensive list of such documents is provided at Annexure-A and it is clarified that no other document needs to be provided by the applicant at the stage of filing of the refund application. The facility of uploading these other documents/invoices shall be available on the common portal where four documents, each of maximum 5MB, may be uploaded along with the refund application. Neither the refund application in FORM GST RFD-01 nor any of the supporting documents shall be required to be physically submitted to the office of the jurisdictional proper officer. b. The Application Reference Number (ARN) will be generated only after the applicant has completed the process of filing the refund application in FORM GST RFD-01, and has completed uploading of all the supporting documents/ undertaking/ statements/invoices and, where required, the amount has been debited from the electronic credit/cash ledger. c. As soon as the ARN is generated, the refund application along....
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....cy memo gets issued for the refund application submitted by him, then the re-submitted refund application, after correction of deficiencies, shall be treated as a fresh refund application and shall be forwarded to the jurisdictional proper officer of the tax authority to which the taxpayer has now been assigned, irrespective of which authority handled the initial refund claim and issued the deficiency memo. 6. Any refund claim for a tax period may be filed only after furnishing all the returns in FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B which were due to be furnished on or before the date on which the refund application is being filed. However, in case of a claim for refund filed by a composition taxpayer, a non-resident taxable person, or an Input Service Distributor (ISD) furnishing of returns in FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B is not required. Instead, the applicant should have furnished returns in FORM GSTR-4 (along with FORM GST CMP-08), FORM GSTR-5 or FORM GSTR-6, as the case may be, which were due to be furnished on or before the date on which the refund application is being filed. 4[7. The applicants applying for refund must give an undertaking to the effect that the amount of refu....
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....efund application would not be further processed and a fresh application would have to be filed. Any amount of input tax credit/cash debited from electronic credit/ cash ledger would be re-credited automatically once the deficiency memo has been issued. It may be noted that the re-credit would take place automatically and no order in FORM GST PMT-03 is required to be issued. The applicant is required to rectify the deficiencies highlighted in deficiency memo and file fresh refund application electronically in FORM GST RFD-01 again for the same period and this application would have a new and distinct ARN. 11. It is further clarified that once an application has been submitted afresh, pursuant to a deficiency memo, the proper officer will not serve another deficiency memo with respect to the application for the same period, unless the deficiencies pointed out in the original deficiency memo remain un-rectified, either wholly or partly, or any other substantive deficiency is noticed subsequently. 12. It is also clarified that since a refund application filed after correction of deficiency is treated as a fresh refund application, such a rectified refund application, submitted after....
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....on 54 of the CGST Act, read with section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act, requiring the applicant to show cause as to why: a. the amount claimed of Rs. 30/- should not be rejected as per the relevant provisions of the law; and b. the amount of Rs. 20/- erroneously refunded should not be recovered under section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be, along with interest and penalty, if any. 16. The proper officer for adjudicating the above case shall be the same as the proper officer for sanctioning refund under section 54 of the CGST Act. The above notice shall be adjudicated following the principles of natural justice and an order shall be issued, in FORM GST RFD-06, under section 54 of the CGST Act, read with section 73 or section 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be. If the adjudicating authority decides against the applicant in respect of both points (a) and (b) above, then an amount of Rs. 70/- will have to be sanctioned in FORM GST RFD-06, and an amount of Rs. 20/-, along with interest and penalty, if any, shall be entered by the officer in the electronic liability register of the applicant through issuance of FORM GST DRC-07. Further, if the application pertains to ref....
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..... Re-crediting of electronic credit ledger on account of rejection of refund claim 20. In case of rejection of refund claim of unutilized/accumulated ITC due to ineligibility of the input tax credit under any provisions of the CGST Act and rules made thereunder, the proper officer shall have to issue a show cause notice in FORM GST RFD-08, under section 54 of the CGST Act, read with section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act, requiring the applicant to show cause as to why: a. the refund amount corresponding to the ineligible ITC should not be rejected as per the relevant provisions of the law; and b. the amount of ineligible ITC should not be recovered as wrongly availed ITC under section 73 or section 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be, along with interest and penalty, if any. 21. The above notice shall be adjudicated following the principles of natural justice and an order shall be issued, in FORM GST RFD-06, under section 54 of the CGST Act, read with section 73 or section 74 of the CGST Act, as the case may be. If the adjudicating authority decides against the applicant in respect of both points (a) and (b) above, then FORM GST RFD-06 shall have to be issued accordingly, and ....
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....same is finally decided against the applicant. 24. Continuing with the above example, further assume that the applicant files an appeal against this order and the appellate authority decides wholly in the applicant's favour. It is hereby clarified in such a case the petitioner would file a fresh refund claim for the said amount of Rs. 20/- under the option of claiming refund "On Account of Assessment/Provisional Assessment/Appeal/Any other order". Application for refund of integrated tax paid on export of services and supplies made to a Special Economic Zone developer or a Special Economic Zone unit 25. It has been represented that while filing the return in FORM GSTR-3B for a given tax period, certain registered persons committed errors in declaring the export of services on payment of integrated tax or zero-rated supplies made to a Special Economic Zone developer or a Special Economic Zone unit on payment of integrated tax. They have shown such supplies in the Table under column 3.1(a) instead of showing them in column 3.1(b) of FORM GSTR-3B whilst they have shown the correct details in Table 6A or 6B of FORM GSTR-1 for the relevant tax period and duly discharged their tax lia....
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....nt details etc. This master file shall be shared with PFMS for validation of the bank account details provided by the applicant in the refund application. Once the bank account is validated, PFMS will create a unique assessee code (combination of GSTIN + validated bank account number) for the applicant. This unique assessee code will be used by PFMS for all refund payments made to the applicant in the said bank account. Therefore, in order to avoid repeat validations and generation of multiple unique assessee codes for the same GSTIN, it shall be advisable for the applicants to enter the same bank account details in successive refund applications submitted in FORM GST RFD-01. In cases where an applicant wishes to avail the refund in a different bank account, which has not yet been validated, a new unique assessee code (comprising of GSTIN + new bank account) will be generated by PFMS after validation of the said bank account. 29. If the bank account details mentioned by an applicant in the refund application submitted in FORM GST RFD-01 are invalidated, an error message shall be transmitted by PFMS to the common portal electronically and the common portal shall make the error mess....
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....taxpayer by email/SMS. Such details shall also be available on the status tracking facility on the dashboard. 34. Section 56 of the CGST Act clearly states that if any tax ordered to be refunded is not refunded within 60 days of the date of receipt of application, interest at the rate of 6 per cent (notified vide notification No. 13/2017-Central Tax dated 28.06.2017) on the refund amount starting from the date immediately after the expiry of sixty days from the date of receipt of application (ARN) till the date of refund of such tax shall have to be paid to the applicant. It may be noted that any tax shall be considered to have been refunded only when the amount has been credited to the bank account of the applicant. Therefore, interest will be calculated starting from the date immediately after the expiry of sixty days from the date of receipt of the application till the date on which the amount is credited to the bank account of the applicant. Accordingly, all tax authorities are advised to issue the final sanction order in FORM GST RFD-06 and the payment order in FORM GST RFD-05 within 45 days of the date of generation of ARN, so that the disbursement is completed within 60 day....
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.... that the proper officer shall not insist on the submission of an invoice (either original or duplicate) the details of which are available in FORM GSTR-2A of the relevant period uploaded by the applicant. [Other Clarification issued under Para 1 of Circular No. 197/09/2023-GST dated 17/07/2023, Para 5 of Circular No. 135/05/2020-GST dated 31.03.2020 earlier amended vide Circular No. 139/09/2020-GST dated 10/06/2020] 37. In case of refunds pertaining to items listed at (a), (c) and (e) in para 3 above, the common portal calculates the refundable amount as the least of the following amounts: a) The maximum refund amount as per the formula in rule 89(4) or rule 89(5) of the CGST Rules [formula is applied on the consolidated amount of ITC, i.e. Central tax + State tax/Union Territory tax +Integrated tax]; b) The balance in the electronic credit ledger of the applicant at the end of the tax period for which the refund claim is being filed after the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the said period has been filed; and c) The balance in the electronic credit ledger of the applicant at the time of filing the refund application. After calculating the least of the ....
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....so to rule 89(1) of the CGST Rules allows either the recipient or the supplier to apply for refund of tax paid on such deemed export supplies. In case such refund is sought by the supplier of deemed export supplies, the documentary evidences as specified in notification No. 49/2017- Central Tax dated 18.10.2017 are also required to be furnished which includes an undertaking that the recipient of deemed export supplies shall not claim the refund in respect of such supplies and shall not avail any input tax credit on such supplies. Similarly, in case the refund is filed by the recipient of deemed export supplies, an undertaking shall have to be furnished by him stating that refund has been claimed only for those invoices which have been detailed in statement 5B for the tax period for which refund is being claimed and the amount does not exceed the amount of input tax credit availed in the valid return filed for the said tax period. The recipient shall also be required to declare that the supplier has not claimed refund with respect to the said supplies. The procedure regarding procurement of supplies of goods from DTA by Export Oriented Unit (EOU) / Electronic Hardware Technology Par....
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.... availed of the compensation cess paid on the inputs received during this period. ITC is only availed of the Central tax, State tax/Union Territory tax or Integrated tax charged on the invoices for these inputs. This ITC is utilized for payment of Integrated tax on export of goods. Vide Circular No. 45/19/2018-GST dated 30.05.2018, it was clarified that refund of accumulated ITC of compensation cess on account of zero-rated supplies made under Bond/Letter of Undertaking is available even if the exported product is not subject to levy of cess. After the issuance of this Circular, the registered person decides to start exporting under bond/LUT without payment of tax. He also decides to avail (through the return in FORM GSTR-3B) the ITC of compensation cess, paid on the inputs used in the months of July, 2017 to May, 2018, in the month of July, 2018. The registered person then goes on to file a refund claim for ITC accumulated on account of exports for the month of July, 2018 and includes the said accumulated ITC for the month of July, 2018. How should the amount of compensation cess to be refunded be calculated? Clarification: In the instant case, refund on account of compensation ....
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....tails are entered in the FORM GSTR-3B filed for the month as a result of which an amount of Rs. 50/- only is credited in the electronic credit ledger. The reversed amount (Rs. 50/-) is then shown as a 'cost' in the books of accounts of the registered person. However, the registered person declares Rs. 100/- as 'Net ITC' and uses the same in calculating the maximum refund amount which works out to be Rs. 50/- (assuming that export turnover is half of total turnover). Since both the balance in the electronic credit ledger at the end of the tax period for which the claim of refund is being filed and the balance in the electronic credit ledger at the time of filing the refund claim is Rs. 50/- (assuming that no other debits/credits have happened), the common portal will proceed to debit Rs. 50/- from the ledger as the claimed refund amount. The question is whether the proper officer should sanction Rs. 50/- as the refund amount or Rs. 25/- (i.e. half of the ITC availed after adjusting for reversals)? Clarification: ITC which is reversed cannot be held to have been 'availed' in the relevant period. Therefore, the same cannot be part of refund of unutilized ITC ....
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.... such services is not received by the exporter in convertible foreign exchange. It has been reported that the exporters have been asked to pay Integrated tax where the goods have been exported but not within three months from the date of the issue of the invoice for export. In this regard, it is emphasized that exports have been zero rated under the IGST Act and as long as goods have actually been exported even after a period of three months, payment of Integrated tax first and claiming refund at a subsequent date should not be insisted upon. In such cases, the jurisdictional Commissioner may consider granting extension of time limit for export as provided in the said sub-rule on post facto basis keeping in view the facts and circumstances of each case. The same principle should be followed in case of export of services. 46. It is learnt that some field formations are asking for a self-declaration with every refund claim to the effect that the applicant has not been prosecuted. The facility of export under LUT is available to all exporters in terms of notification No. 37/2017- Central Tax dated 04.10.2017, except to those who have been prosecuted for any offence under the CGST Act....
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....export of goods, a statement containing the number and date of shipping bills or bills of export and the number and the date of the relevant export invoices is required to be submitted along with the claim for refund. It is therefore clarified that insistence on proof of realization of export proceeds for processing of refund claims related to export of goods has not been envisaged in the law and should not be insisted upon. 49. As per section 16(2) of the IGST Act, credit of input tax may be availed for making zero rated supplies, notwithstanding that such supply is an exempt supply. In terms of section 2 (47) of the CGST Act, exempt supply includes non-taxable supply. Further, as per section 16(3) of the IGST Act, a registered person making zero rated supply shall be eligible to claim refund when he either makes supply of goods or services or both under bond or letter of undertaking (LUT) or makes such supply on payment of Integrated tax. However, in case of zero-rated supply of exempted or non-GST goods, the requirement for furnishing a bond or LUT cannot be insisted upon. It is thus, clarified that in respect of refund claims on account of export of non-GST and exempted goods ....
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....ly in order to enable such exporters to avail the said facility. Notification No. 54/2018-Central Tax dated the 9th October, 2018 was issued to carry out the changes recommended by the GST Council. In addition, notification No. 39/2018-Central Tax dated 4th September, 2018 was rescinded vide notification No. 53/2018 - Central Tax dated the 9th October, 2018. 52. The net effect of these changes is that any exporter who himself/herself imported any inputs/capital goods in terms of notification Nos. 78/2017-Customs and 79/2017-Customs both dated 13.10.2017, before the issuance of the notification No. 54/2018 - Central Tax dated 09.10.2018, shall be eligible to claim refund of the Integrated tax paid on exports. Further, exporters who have imported inputs in terms of notification Nos. 78/2017-Customs dated 13.10.2017, after the issuance of notification No. 54/2018 - Central Tax dated 09.10.2018, would not be eligible to claim refund of Integrated tax paid on exports. However, exporters who are receiving capital goods under the EPCG scheme, either through import in terms of notification No. 79/2017-Customs dated 13.10. 2017 or through domestic procurement in terms of notification No. 4....
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....erstood with the help of following example: i. Suppose a manufacturing process involves the use of an input A (attracting 5 per cent GST) and input B (attracting 18 per cent GST) to manufacture output Y (attracting 12 per cent GST). ii. The refund of accumulated ITC in the situation at (i) above, will be available under section 54(3) of the CGST Act read with rule 89(5) of the CGST Rules, which prescribes the formula for the maximum refund amount permissible in such situations. iii. Further assume that the applicant supplies the output Y having value of Rs. 3,000/- during the relevant period for which the refund is being claimed. Therefore, the turnover of inverted rated supply of goods and services will be Rs. 3,000/-. Since the applicant has no other outward supplies, his adjusted total turnover will also be Rs. 3,000/-. iv. If we assume that Input A, having value of Rs. 500/- and Input B, having value of Rs. 2,000/-, have been purchased in the relevant period for the manufacture of Y, then Net ITC shall be equal to Rs. 385/- (Rs. 25/- and Rs. 360/- on Input A and Input B respectively). v. Therefore, multiplying Net ITC by the ratio of turnover of inverted rated supply ....
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....ed to as the "said notification"). Some of these registered persons, who have attempted to claim refund of accumulated ITC on account of inverted tax structure for the same period in which the ITC required to be lapsed in terms of the said notification has been reversed, are not able to claim refund of accumulated ITC to the extent to which they are so eligible. This is because of a validation check on the common portal which prevents the value of input tax credit in Statement 1A of FORM GST RFD-01A from being higher than the amount of ITC availed in FORM GSTR-3B of the relevant period minus the value of ITC reversed in the same period. This results in registered persons being unable to claim the full amount of refund of accumulated ITC on account of inverted tax structure to which they might be otherwise eligible. What is the solution to this problem? a) As a one-time measure to resolve this issue, refund of accumulated ITC on account of inverted tax structure, for the period(s) in which there is reversal of the ITC required to be lapsed in terms of the said notification, is to be claimed under the category "any other" instead of under the category "refund of unutilized IT....
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....on has reversed the amount of credit to be lapsed in the return in FORM GSTR-3B for a month subsequent to the month of August, 2018 or through FORM GST DRC-03 subsequent to the due date of filing of the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the month of August, 2018, he shall be liable to pay interest under sub-section (1) of section 50 of the CGST Act on the amount which has been reversed belatedly. Such interest shall be calculated starting from the due date of filing of return in FORM GSTR-3B for the month of August, 2018 till the date of reversal of said amount through FORM GSTR-3B or through FORM GST DRC-03, as the case may be. b) The registered person who has reversed the amount of credit to be lapsed in the return in FORM GSTR-3B for any month subsequent to August, 2018 or through FORM GST DRC-03 subsequent to the due date of filing of the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the month of August, 2018 would remain eligible to claim refund of unutilized ITC on account of accumulation due to inverted tax structure w.e.f. 01.08.2018. However, such refund shall be granted only after the reversal of the amount of credit to be lapsed, either through FORM GSTR-3B or FORM GST DRC-03, along with payment....
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....s filed the return in FORM GSTR-3B for the relevant period duly indicating the integrated tax paid on goods exported in Table 3.1(b) of FORM-GSTR-3B. In addition, the exporter is expected to furnish the details of the exported goods in Table 6A of FORM GSTR-1 of the relevant period. Only where the common portal is able to validate the consistency of the details so entered by the applicant, the relevant information regarding the refund claim is forwarded to Customs Systems. Upon receipt of the information from the common portal regarding furnishing of these details, the Customs Systems processes the claim for refund and an amount equal to the Integrated tax paid in respect of such export is electronically credited to the bank account of the applicant. Clarifications on other issues 59. Notification No. 40/2017 - Central Tax (Rate) and notification No. 41/2017 - Integrated Tax (Rate) both dated 23.10.2017 provide for supplies for exports at a concessional rate of 0.05% and 0.1% respectively, subject to certain conditions specified in the said notifications. It is clarified that the benefit of supplies at concessional rate is subject to certain conditions and the said benefit is opt....
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....ORM GSTR-3B. Further, section 16(4) of the CGST Act stipulates that ITC may be claimed on or before the due date of filing of the return for the month of September following the financial year to which the invoice pertains or the date of filing of annual return, whichever is earlier. Therefore, the input tax credit of invoices issued in August, 2019, "availed" in September, 2019 cannot be excluded from the calculation of the refund amount for the month of September, 2019. 62. It has been represented that on certain occasions, departmental officers do not consider ITC on stores and spares, packing materials, materials purchased for machinery repairs, printing and stationery items, as part of Net ITC on the grounds that these are not directly consumed in the manufacturing process and therefore, do not qualify as input. There are also instances where stores and spares charged to revenue are considered as capital goods and therefore the ITC availed on them is not included in Net ITC, even though the value of these goods has not been capitalized in his books of account by the applicant. It is clarified that the ITC of the GST paid on inputs, including inward supplies of stores and spar....
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..../develop er without payment of tax Declaration under third proviso to section 54(3) 6B[****] Statement 5 under rule 89(2)(d) and rule 89(2)(e) Statement of invoices (Annexure-B) Statement 5A under rule 89(4) Self-certified copies of invoices entered in Annexure-B whose details are not found in GSTR-2A of the relevant period Declaration under rule 89(2)(f) Endorsement(s) from the specified officer of the SEZ regarding receipt of goods/services for authorized operations under second proviso to rule 89(1) 5B[Undertaking in relation to sections 16(2)(c)] Self-declaration under rule 89(2)(l) if amount claimed does not exceed two lakh rupees, certification under rule 89(2)(m) otherwise 4 Refund of tax paid on supplies made to SEZ units/developer with payment of tax Declaration under second and third proviso to section 54(3) Endorsement(s) from the specified officer of the SEZ regarding receipt of goods/services for authorized operations under second proviso to rule 89(1) Declaration under rule 89(2)(f) Self-certified copies of invoices entered in Annexure-A whose details are not found in GSTR-2A of the relevant period Statement 4 u....
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....ssessment / appeal / any other order 5I[Undertaking in relation to sections 16(2)(c)] Reference number of the order and a copy of the Assessment / Provisional Assessment / Appeal / Any Other Order Self-declaration under rule 89(2)(l) if amount claimed does not exceed two lakh rupees, certification under rule 89(2)(m) otherwise Reference number/proof of payment of pre-deposit made earlier for which refund is being claimed 11 Refund on account of any other ground or reason 5J[Undertaking in relation to sections 16(2)(c)] Documents in support of the claim Self-declaration under rule 89(2)(l) if amount claimed does not exceed two lakh rupees, certification under rule 89(2)(m) otherwise 1[Annexure-B Statement of invoices to be submitted with application for refund of unutilized ITC Sr. No. GSTIN of the Supplier Name of the Supplier Invoice Details Category of input supplies Central Tax State Tax/ Union Territory Tax Integrated Tax Cess Eligible for ITC Amount of eligible ITC Invoice No. Date Value Inputs/ Input S....
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....down in Circular No. 14/14/2017-GST dated 06.11.2017 needs to be complied with." 3. Substituted vide Circular No. 147/03//2021-GST dated 12-03-2021 before it was read as "26. In this regard, it is clarified that for the tax periods commencing from 01.07.2017 to 30.06.2019, such registered persons shall be allowed to file the refund application in FORM GST RFD-01 on the common portal subject to the condition that the amount of refund of integrated tax/cess claimed shall not be more than the aggregate amount of integrated tax/cess mentioned in the Table under columns 3.1(a), 3.1(b) and 3.1(c) of FORM GSTR-3B filed for the corresponding tax period." 4. Substituted vide Circular No. 197/09/2023- GST dated 17-07-2023 before it was read as, "7. Since the functionality of furnishing of FORM GSTR-2 and FORM GSTR-3 remains unimplemented, it has been decided by the GST Council to sanction refund of provisionally accepted input tax credit. However, the applicants applying for refund must give an undertaking to the effect that the amount of refund sanctioned would be paid back to the Government with interest in case it is found subsequently that the requirements of clause ....