GST 退税的全面电子化处理流程

Digitalization has become a key agenda in the GST department; And the government is taking every step to increase the digitalization of every process and reducing human intervention including the GST refund procedure.

To accomplish this objective, Refund under Good and Service Tax (“GST”) has been made completely electronic with effect from 26th September 2019 with no requirement of manual submission of any document with GST refund application. 

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (“CBIC” or “Department”) described complete procedure of electronic filing of GST refund application vide circular No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18th November 2019 and also covered many other important issues for GST refund procedure. 

As guidelines for processing electronic GST refunds has been prescribed. Therefore, circulars issued earlier guiding manual submission of refund application has been suppressed.

1. Implementation of Electronic Refund Module wef 26th September 2019

With effect from 26th September 2019, all capabilities for making the refund process fully electronic have been deployed on the GST portal. Consequently, Circulars issued earlier in which guidelines for manual submission and processing of refund claims were prescribed need to be modified accordingly.

2. Earlier Circulars guiding manual submission of refund application - no longer into effect

CBIC has issued circular No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18th November 2019, wherein new guidelines for processing electronic refunds are prescribed. Accordingly, following circulars issued earlier guiding manual submission of refund application has been suppressed:

1. Circular No. 17/17/2017-GST dated 15.11.2017
2. Circular No. 24/24/2017-GST dated 21.12.2017
3. Circular No. 37/11/2018-GST dated 15.03.2018
4. Circular No. 45/19/2018-GST dated 30.05.2018 (including corrigendum dated 18.07.2019)
5. Circular No. 59/33/2018-GST dated 04.09.2018
6. Circular No. 70/44/2018-GST dated 26.10.2018
7. Circular No. 79/53/2018-GST dated 31.12.2018
8. Circular No. 94/13/2019-GST dated 28.03.2019

Provision of earlier issued circulars shall continue to apply for refund application filed before 26th September 2019 in form GST RFD-01A on the GST portal, and accordingly, such applications shall be disposed of manually.

3. Electronic process of filing GST refund application

3.1 Who can claim GST refund

A taxpayer shall file an application in form GST RFD-01 on the common portal for electronic processing of the refund. Refund application can be filed under any of the following categories:

1. Refund of unutilized input tax credit (ITC) on account of exports without payment of tax;
2. Tax paid on export of services with payment of tax;
3. Unutilized ITC on account of supplies made to SEZ Unit/SEZ Developer without payment of tax;
4. Refund of tax paid on supplies made to SEZ Unit/SEZ Developer with payment of tax;
5. Refund of unutilized ITC on account of accumulation due to inverted tax structure;
6. To the supplier of tax paid on deemed export supplies;
7. To the recipient of tax paid on deemed export supplies;
8. Excess balance in the electronic cash ledger;
9. Excess payment of tax;
10. Refund of tax paid on an intra-State supply which is subsequently held to be inter-State supply and vice versa;
11. On account of assessment/provisional assessment/appeal/any other order;
12. On account of “any other” ground or reason

3.2 Online Uploading of all Supporting documents for GST Refund

• A taxpayer shall file all statements/undertakings/declarations which forms part of form GST RFD-01 itself.
• Post filing of form GST RFD-01, a taxpayer will be required to file all other supporting documents and invoices for processing of refund claim.
• The facility of uploading such invoices is available on the common portal, where all documents can be uploaded in 4 parts of 5 MB each.
• Neither the refund application nor supporting documents will be submitted manually with the jurisdictional officer.

3.3 Application Reference Number (ARN) generation for GST refund

ARN shall be generated only after filing of GST RFD-01, submission of all supporting documents, and post debit of amount from electronic credit/cash ledger, where required.

3.4 Auto Sharing of GST refund Application with jurisdiction GST officer

• Post generation of ARN, refund application shall be forwarded to the concerned jurisdictional officer. He shall be able to view it online.
• The application shall be considered to be filed on the date of the generation of ARN, and the officer shall be required to issue an acknowledgment or a deficiency memo within 15 days.
• The taxpayer shall no longer be required to visit the jurisdictional office for manual submission of documents.
• Jurisdictional officer shall issue the acknowledgment (GST RFD-02) or deficiency memo (GST RFD-03) depending upon the completion of documents shared.

3.5 GST Refund application forwarded to the wrong jurisdictional officer

• If a refund application is assigned to the wrong judicial officer, then he shall forward the same to the concerned jurisdictional officer at earliest but not later than 3 working days from date of generation of ARN.
• A deficiency memo can’t be issued on the mere ground that the application is wrongly assigned.

3.6 Processing of GST refund for unassigned taxpayers

• The refund application shall be forwarded to the assigned center or state jurisdictional officer.
• But there may be some migrated taxpayers who are not yet assigned (“Unassigned Taxpayers) to any tax authority.
• Refund application in form GST RFD-01 of unassigned taxpayers shall be forwarded to such jurisdictional officers from whom the taxpayer originally migrated.
• Such officers will continue to process these applications up to the stage of issuance of a final order in FORM GST RFD-06 and the related payment order in FORM GST RFD-05, even if such a taxpayer is assigned to counterpart tax authority while refund application is under process.
• Exception to the above, if application of such taxpayer get forwarded to original jurisdictional officer, and he issues a deficiency memo then resubmitted application, after correcting deficiency, shall be considered as a fresh application and shall be forwarded to newly assigned jurisdictional officer irrespective of fact that which authority handled the initial refund claim and deficiency memo.

3.7 Pre-requisites for filing GST refund application

While filing Refund application, the taxpayer should have filed the following forms due for filing on the date of filing refund application:

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As GSTR-2 has not been implemented yet, therefore, department has decided to grant refund of provisionally accepted refund amount subject to online submission of an undertaking by taxpayer that the amount of refund sanctioned would be paid back to the Government with interest if it is found subsequently that the requirements of section 16(2)(c) read with Section 42(2)(c) of the CGST Act, 2019 have not complied.

3.8 Period of submission of GST refund application

• A refund application can be filed for a tax period or clubbing successive tax period. However, a separate application is required for different fiscal years.
• A registered person, having aggregate turnover upto INR 1.50 crores in preceding or current financial year and who has opted to file GSTR-1 on a quarterly basis, shall file an application on a quarterly basis.
• Refund application under category (a), (c), and (e) mentioned above shall be file chronologically, i.e., refund application once filed under a category for a particular period. No refund application shall be allowed under the same category for any previous period.
• Such limitation shall not apply in a case where a fresh application is being filed pursuant to a deficiency memo.

4. Clarifications on extension of LUT on Ex-Post Fact basis for Zero-Rated Supplies

• When the export is made without payment of taxes, then the taxpayer is required to furnish a bond or letter of undertaking (LUT) to the jurisdictional commissioner before effecting zero-rated supply.

• In some instances, where the taxpayer made zero-rated supply before furnishing LUT, and he filed a refund claim for unutilized ITC.

• In this matter, the department has clarified that the benefit of zero-rated supplies can’t be denied where it has been established that export in terms of relevant provisions has been made.

• Delay in furnishing LUT may be condoned on an ex post facto basis, taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of each case.

4.1 Self-declaration of no prosecution along with every GST refund application

• Instances have been come to notice of department that some field information are asking for self-declaration with every refund application to the effect that the applicant has not been prosecuted.

• As per notification No. 37/2017-Central tax dated 4th October 2017, the facility of export under LUT is available to all exporters except those who have been prosecuted of any offense under CGST or IGST act or under any other law for the time being in force where the amount of tax evaded exceeds INR 250 Lakh rupees.

• As per circular No. 8/8/2017-GST dated 4th October 2017, a person intending to export on LUT should file a declaration at the time of submission of LUT that he has not been prosecuted.
• Accordingly, the department has clarified that as a requirement of a furnishing declaration has already been satisfied, then the requirement of filing a declaration should not be insisted on every refund application.

4.2 Clarifications on the difference in the value of invoice and value appearing on shipping bill

• As per representation, taxpayers have claimed a Refund of the unutilized input tax credit on account of export of goods and value declared in the invoice is different from the amount of invoice appearing on the shipping bill.

• 税务部门已明确，发票价值应根据《CGST法案》第15条及其相关规则确定。该价值应与相应的装运单或出口报关单上记录的价值保持一致。

• 然而，若两者存在差异，在计算符合条件的退税金额时，应取GST发票或装运单上申报价值中较低者。

5. GST退税金额的计算方式

• 未抵扣进项税额（ITC）的退税额应按以下各项中的最小值计算：

• 根据《CGST规则》第89(4)条或第89(5)条公式计算出的最高退税额 [该公式适用于ITC的合并金额，即：中央税 + 各邦税/中央直辖区税 + 综合税]；
• 申请人在申报期结束时，在提交该期GSTR-3B申报表后的电子抵免分类账余额。
• 申请人在提交退税申请时的电子抵免分类账余额。

在计算出应向申请人发放的退税额后，电子抵免分类账应扣除以下金额：

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由于通用门户网站尚未提供电子抵免分类账自动扣款功能，建议纳税人在处理所有退税申请时遵循上述扣款顺序。但如果申请人未按此顺序操作，税务机关也不会采取不利措施。

未使用的补偿税（Compensation Cess）余额退税应单独计算，计算出的金额应从电子抵免分类账中现有的补偿税余额中扣除。

6. 统一由单一税务机关负责发放所有税种的GST退税：

• 此前，不同税种的退税由不同的GST机关负责，例如中央税、综合税和补偿税由中央税务官员发放，而各邦税则由各邦税务机关发放。这种机制给纳税人造成了不必要的负担。
• 为简化流程，现已明确，分配给中央税务官员的任何退税申请，均应由该官员统一处理并批准所有税种的退税。同样，分配给各邦税务官员的退税申请，也应由该官员负责处理所有税种的退税。

7. GST退税银行账户的验证

• 批准的退税款将通过印度政府财政部印度主计长（CAG）的公共财政管理系统（PFMS）进行发放。

• 退税款将在银行账户详细信息验证通过后发放。为发放退税，PFMS将生成一个唯一的受让人代码（由GSTIN和已验证的银行账号组合而成）。因此，为避免生成多个唯一受让人代码，建议使用同一个银行账户申请退税。

• 如果银行账户验证失败，系统将向申请人发送错误信息。申请人可以通过在 GST REG-14 表格中提交非核心字段的修订来更正无效信息或添加新的银行账户信息。

• 申请人可以选择更新用于退税的银行账户信息。PFMS将对修订后的银行账户信息进行验证。主管官员只有在所选银行账户验证通过后，才能签发 FORM GST RFD-05 格式的付款指令。

• 通常情况下，银行账户验证应在签发 GST RFD-05 付款指令前完成，且后续不应出现验证错误。
• 但如果出现特殊情况，后续产生错误，系统将取消该退税指令，并在重新验证银行账户信息后签发新的退税指令。

• 验证后的新付款指令将拥有一个新的参考编号。但原始的ARN、批准指令编号或批准金额不会发生变化。

• 用于退税的银行账户可从注册时提供的银行账户列表或后续通过修订添加的银行账户中选择。
• 除非出现验证错误，否则纳税人不得更改现有的银行账户信息。

• 退税发放状态将通过电子邮件/短信通知申请人。此外，也可在 PFMS 仪表板的状态跟踪功能中查询。

8. GST退税逾期发放的6%利息

• If tax ordered to be refunded is not refunded within 60 days from the date of receipt of the application, then the department is required to pay interest @6% p.a. for the period starting immediately after expiry of 60 days till the amount is refunded to the applicant.

• For this purpose, the tax shall be considered to be refunded only when the amount has been credited to the bank account of the applicant.

• Accordingly, department officers are suggested to issue final sanction order in form GST RFD-06 within 45 days of the date of generation of ARN so that a refund can be credited to the bank account of the applicant within 60 days.

9. No GST refund not exceeding INR 1,000

• As per section 54(14) of the CGST Act, no refund under section 54(5) or (6) shall be paid to an applicant if the amount is less than one thousand rupees. In this regard, the department has clarified that the limit of INR 1,000 shall be applied for each tax head separately and not cumulatively.