TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Fully electronic refund process through FORM GST RFD-01 and single disbursement
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....r No. 33/2019-GST (No. CT/GST-15/2017/284 dated 30.01.2019) 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 Commissioner of State tax, Assam in exercise of its powers conferred by section 168 of the Assam Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as "Assam GST Act"), hereby lays down the procedure for electronic submission and proces....
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....aded 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. Page 2 of 31 c. As soon as the ARN is generated, the refund application along with all the supporting documents shall be transferred electronically to the jurisdictional proper officer who shall be able to view it on the system. The application shall be deemed to have been filed under sub-rule (2) of rule 90 of the Assam GST Rules on the date of generation of the said ARN and the time limit of 15 days to issue an acknowledgement or a deficiency memo, as the case may be, shall be counted from the said date. This will obviate the need for an applicant to visit the jurisdictional tax office for the submission....
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....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) Page 3 of 31 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. 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 (c) of sub-section (2) of section 16 read with sub-section (2) of section 42 of the Assam GST Act have not been complied with in respect of the amount refu....
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....matically 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 correction of deficiencies, shall also have to be submitted within 2 years of the relevant date, as defined in the explanation after sub-section (14) of section 54 of the Assam GST Act. Provisional Refund 13. Doubts get raised as to whether provisional refund would be given even in those cases wh....
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.... of Rs. 20/- erroneously refunded should not be recovered under section 73 or section 74 of the Assam GST 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 Assam GST 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 Assam GST Act, read with section 73 or section 74 of the Assam GST 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 refund of unutilized/accumulated ITC, then Rs. 30/-, i.e. the amount rejected, shall have to be re-credited to the electronic credit ledger of the applicant through FORM GST PMT-03. However, this re-....
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....mulated ITC due to ineligibility of the input tax credit under any provisions of the Assam GST 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 Assam GST Act, read with section 73 or 74 of the Assam GST 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 Assam GST 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 Assam GST Act, read with section 73 or section 74 of the Assam GST 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 the amount of ineligible ITC, along with interest and penalty, if any, shall be entered by the officer....
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....tinuing 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 liabilities. Such registered persons were earl....
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.... 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 message....
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....tal shall notify the same to the taxpayer by email/SMS. Such details shall also be available on the status tracking facility on the dashboard. 34. Section 56 of the Assam GST 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. FTX.56/2017/33 dated 29.06.2017) 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 Page 10 of 31 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....
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....ORM GSTR-2A, shall be uploaded by the applicant along with the application in FORM GST RFD 01. It is emphasized 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. 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 Assam GST Rules [formula is applied on the consolidated amount of ITC, i.e. Central tax + State tax +Integrated tax]; Page 11 of 31 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 three amounts, as detailed above, the equivalent amount is to be debited from the electronic credit ledger of the applican....
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....se such refund is sought by the supplier of deemed export supplies, the documentary evidences as specified Page 12 of 31 in notification No. FTX.56/2017/Pt-III/22 dated 05.12.2017 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 that he has not availed input tax credit on such invoices. 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 Park (EHTP) Unit / Software Technology Park (STP) Unit / Bio-Technology Parks (BTP) Unit under deemed export as laid down in Central Circular No. 14/14/2017-GST dated 06.11.2017 ne....
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....ax, State 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 Central 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 cess is to be recomputed as if the same was available in the respective months in which the refund of unutilized cred....
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.... 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 on account of zero-rated supplies. Moreover, the reversed ITC has been accounted as a cost which would....
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....eived 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 Central notification No. 37/2017- Central Tax dated 04.10.2017, except to those who have been prosecuted for any offence under the Assam GST Ac....
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....ficates (FIRC) is required in case of export of services whereas, in case of 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 Assam GST 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, ....
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....ed approval to the proposal of suitably amending the said sub-rule along with sub-rule (4B) of rule 89 of the Assam GST Rules prospectively in order to enable such exporters to avail the said facility. Notification No. FTX.56/2017/362 dated 24.12.2018 was issued to carry out the changes recommended by the GST Council. In addition, notification No. FTX.56/2017/261 dated 09.10.2018, 2018 was rescinded vide notification No. FTX.56/2017/361 dated 24.12.2018. 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. FTX.56/2017/362 dated 24.12.2018, 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. FTX.56/2017/362 dated 24.12.2018, 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 N....
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....refund of accumulated ITC on account of inverted tax structure, in cases where several inputs are used in supplying the final product/output, can be clearly understood 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 Assam GST Act read with rule 89(5) of the Assam GST 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 I....
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.... for a subsequent month, the accumulated input tax credit (ITC) required to be lapsed in terms of notification No. 20/2018 (Rate) [FTX.56/2017/Pt-III/144 dated 24.09.2018] read with circular No. 23/2018-GST (No. CT/GST-15/2017/192 dated 25.09.2018] (hereinafter referred to as the "said notification"). Some of these registered Page 20 of 31 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 ITC on account of accumulation due to inverted tax Sl. Issue Clarification No. 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 Stateme....
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....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? a) It is hereby clarified that all those registered persons required to make the reversal in terms of the said notification and who have not yet done so, may reverse the said amount through FORM GST DRC-03 instead of through FORM GSTR-3B. As the registered person 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 Assam GST 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 Page 22 of 31 Sl. Issue ....
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....he said amount from his electronic credit ledger through FORM GST DRC-03. Once the proof of such debit is received by the proper officer, he shall proceed to issue the refund order in FORM GST RFD-06 and the payment order in FORM GST RFD-05. Refund of Integrated Tax paid on Exports 58. The refund of Integrated tax paid on goods exported out of India is governed by rule 96 of the Assam GST Rules. The shipping bill filed by an exporter is deemed to be an application for refund in such cases, but the same is deemed to have been filed only when the export manifest or export report is filed and the applicant has 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 detail....
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....ds in the FORM GSTR-3B filed for the month of September, 2018. However, it has been reported that tax authorities are excluding such invoices from the calculation of refund of unutilized ITC filed for the month of September, 2018. In this regard, it is clarified that "Net ITC" as defined in rule 89(4) of the Assam GST Rules means input tax credit availed on inputs and input services during the relevant period. Relevant period means the period for which the refund claim has been filed. Input tax credit can be said to have been "availed" when it is entered into the electronic credit ledger of the registered person. Under the current dispensation, this happens when the said taxable person files his/her monthly return in FORM GSTR-3B. Further, section 16(4) of the Assam GST 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 mon....
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....ate tax (All) / Assistant Commissioner of State tax (All) / Superintendent of State tax (All) / Inspector of State tax (All) for information and necessary action. 5. The Information Technology Officer, Office of the Commissioner of State tax, Assam for uploading it on the website of the Commissionerate for information of all concerned. Commissioner of State tax, Assam, Dispur, Guwahati Page 26 of 31 Annexure-A List of all statements/declarations/undertakings/certificates and other supporting documents to be provided along with the refund application SI. No. Type of Refund Refund of unutilized ITC on account of 1 exports without payment of tax Refund of tax paid on export of 2 services made with payment of tax Refund of unutilized ITC on account of Supplies made to 3 SEZ units/devel oper without Declaration/Statement/Undertaki ng/Certificates to be filled online Declaration under second and third proviso to section 54(3) Undertaking in relation to sections 16(2)(c) and section 42(2) Supporting documents to be additionally uploaded Copy of GSTR-2A of the relevant period Statement of invoices (Annexure-B) Self-certified copies of i....
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....le 89(2)(d) and prosecution under sub-rule (1) of rule rule 89(2)(e) Undertaking in relation to sections 16(2)(c) and section 42(2) Self-declaration under rule 89(2)(1) if amount claimed does not exceed two lakh rupees, certification under rule 89(2)(m) otherwise Declaration under second and third proviso to section 54(3) Declaration under section 54(3)(ii) Undertaking in relation to sections 16(2)(c) and section 42(2) Statement 1 under rule 89(5) Statement 1A under rule 89(2)(h) Self-declaration under rule 89(2)(1) if amount claimed does not exceed two lakh rupees, certification under rule 89(2)(m) otherwise Page 28 of 31 91 of the Assam GST Rules for availing provisional refund Copy of GSTR-2A of the relevant period Statement of invoices (Annexure-B) Self-certified copies of invoices entered in Annexure-B whose details are not found in GSTR-2A of the relevant period SI. No. Type of Refund Refund to supplier of tax paid on 6 deemed 7 export supplies Refund to recipient of tax paid on deemed export supplies Refund of excess 8 Declaration/Statement/Undertaki ng/Certificates to be filled online Statement 5(B) under rule 89(2)(g) De....