AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (1) TMI 1203
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....n 54(3)(ii) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 ('CGST Act', for short) and also Circular No. 135/05/2020-GST dated 31.3.2020 issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Ext. P7 in WP(C) No.26112/2023. 3. In WP(C) No. 26112/2023, the challenge is against Ext. P13 appellate order dated 8.6.2023 setting aside the refund orders in favour of the petitioner for the period from April to September, 2021, while in WP(C) No. 20511/2023, the petitioner seeks to quash Ext .P8 appellate order issued by the 2nd respondent and also Exts. P4, P5 and P6 orders issued by the 1st respondent rejecting petitioner's refund applications for accumulated ITC for the months of May, June and March, 2020, respectively. In WP(C) No. 36699/2023, the challenge is against Ext. P17 order of the 1st respondent rejecting the aforesaid refund claim of the petitioner for the period from July, 2020 to March, 2021. 4. The petitioner is engaged in bottling of Liquefied Petroleum Gas ('LPG', for short) in cylinders for both domestic and commercial uses. On the bulk supply of LPG received by the petitioner....
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....person or class of persons, as notified under section 55, entitled to a refund of tax paid by it on inward supplies of goods or services or both, may make an application for such refund, in such form and manner as may be prescribed, before the expiry of six months from the last day of the quarter in which such supply was received. (3) Subject to the provisions of subsection (10), a registered person may claim refund of any unutilised input tax credit at the end of any tax period: Provided that no refund of unutilised input tax credit shall be allowed in cases other than- (i) zero rated supplies made without payment of tax; (ii) where the credit has accumulated on account of rate of tax on inputs being higher than the rate of tax on output supplies (other than nil rated or fully exempt supplies), except supplies of goods or services or both as may be notified by the Government on the recommendations of the Council: Provided further that no refund of unutilised input tax credit shall be allowed in cases where the goods exported out of India are subjected to export duty: Provided also that no refund of input tax credit shall be all....
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....d, be paid to the applicant, if such amount is relatable to - (a) refund of tax paid on export of goods or services or both or on inputs or input services used in making such exports; (b) refund of unutilised input tax credit under sub-section (3); (c) refund of tax paid on a supply which is not provided, either wholly or partially, and for which invoice has not been issued, or where a refund voucher has been issued; (d) refund of tax in pursuance of section 77; (e) the tax and interest, if any, or any other amount paid by the applicant, if he had not passed on the incidence of such tax and interest to any other person; or (f) the tax or interest borne by such other class of applicants as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, specify. (8-A) The Government may disburse the refund of the State tax in such manner as may be prescribed. (9) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any judgment, decree, order or direction of the Appellate Tribunal or any Court or in any other provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder or in any other law for the time being i....
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.... section,- (1) "refund" includes refund of tax paid on zero-rated supplies of goods or services or both or on inputs or input services used in making such zero-rated supplies, or refund of tax on the supply of goods regarded as deemed exports, or refund of unutilised input tax credit as provided under sub-section (3). (2) "relevant date" means- (a) in the case of goods exported out of India where a refund of tax paid is available in respect of goods themselves or, as the case may be, the inputs or input services used in such goods,- (i) if the goods are exported by sea or air, the date on which the ship or the aircraft in which such goods are loaded, leaves India; or (ii) if the goods are exported by land, the date on which such goods pass the frontier; or (iii) if the goods are exported by post, the date of despatch of goods by the Post Office concerned to a place outside India; (b) in the case of supply of goods regarded as deemed exports where a refund of tax paid is available in respect of the goods, the date on which the return relating to such deemed exports is furnished; (c) in the case of services expor....
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....d under Section 168 of the GST Act would read as under: Circular No. 135/05/2020 - GST CBEC-20/01/06/2019-GST Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs GST Policy Wing **** New Delhi, Dated the 31st March, 2020 To, The Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners/ Principal Commissioners/ Commissioners of Central Tax (All) The Principal Director Generals/ Director Generals (All) Madam/Sir, Subject: Clarification on refund related issues - Reg. Various representations have been received seeking clarification on some of the issues relating to GST refunds. In order to clarify these issues and to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of law in this regard across the field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers conferred by section 168 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as "CGST Act"), hereby clarifies the issues detailed hereunder: 2. Bunching of refund claims across Financial Years 2.1 It may be recalled that the restriction on clubbing of ....
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....se received from the merchant exporters wherein merchant exporters have received the supplies of goods in the last quarter of a Financial Year and have made exports in the next Financial Year i.e. from April onwards. The restriction imposed vide para 8 of the master refund circular prohibits the refund of ITC accrued in such cases as well. 2.4 On perusal of the provisions under subsection (3) of section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act, there appears no bar in claiming refund by clubbing different months across successive Financial Years. 2.5 The issue has been examined and it has been decided to remove the restriction on clubbing of tax periods across Financial Years. Accordingly, circular No. 125/44/2019- GST dated 18.11.2019 stands modified to that extent i.e. the restriction on bunching of refund claims across financial years shall not apply. 3. Refund of accumulated input tax credit (ITC) on account of reduction in GST Rate 3.1 It has been brought to the notice of the Board that some of the applicants are seeking refund of unutilized ITC on account of inverted duty struct....
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....sional assessment/appeal/any other order; l. Refund on account of "any other" ground or reason. 4.2 For the refund of tax paid falling in categories specified at S. No.(i) to (l) above i.e. refund claims on supplies other than zero rated supplies, no separate debit of ITC from electronic credit ledger is required to be made by the applicant at the time of filing refund claim, being claim of tax already paid. However, the total tax would have been normally paid by the applicant by debiting tax amount from both electronic credit ledger and electronic cash ledger. At present, in these cases, the amount of admissible refund, is paid in cash even when such payment of tax or any part thereof, has been made through ITC. 4.3.1 As this could lead to allowing unintended encashment of credit balances, this issue has been engaging attention of the Government. Accordingly, vide notification No. 16/2020-Central Tax dated 23.03.2020, subrule (4A) has been inserted in rule 86 of the CGST Rules, 2017 which reads as under: "(4A) Where a registered person has claimed refund of any amount paid as tax wrongly paid or paid in excess for which debit has been made from ....
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....of such invoices were required to be uploaded. However, in wake of insertion of sub-rule (4) to rule 36 of the CGST Rules, 2017 vide notification No. 49/2019-GST dated 09.10.2019, various references have been received from the field formations regarding admissibility of refund of the ITC availed on the invoices which are not reflecting in the FORM GSTR-2A of the applicant. 5.2 The matter has been examined and it has been decided that the refund of accumulated ITC shall be restricted to the ITC as per those invoices, the details of which are uploaded by the supplier in FORM GSTR-1 and are reflected in the FORM GSTR-2A of the applicant. Accordingly, para 36 of the circular No. 125/44/2019-GST, dated 18.11.2019 stands modified to that extent. 6. New Requirement to mention HSN/SAC in Annexure 'B' 6.1 References have also been received from the field formations that HSN wise details of goods and services are not available in FORM GSTR-2A and therefore it becomes very difficult to distinguish ITC on capital goods and/or input services out of total ITC for a relevant tax period. It has been recommended that a column relating to HSN/SAC Code should be added in th....