Circular No. 17/17/2017 – GST
F. No. 349/169/2017-GST
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise and Customs
GST Policy Wing
New Delhi, Dated the 15th November, 2017
To, The Principal Chief Commissioners /
Chief Commissioners /
Principal Commissioners /
Commissioners of Central Tax (All)
The Principal Director Generals /
Director Generals (All)
Madam/Sir,
Sub – Manual filing and processing of refund claims in respect of zero-rated supplies – reg.
Due to the non-availability of the refund module on the common portal, it has been decided by the competent authority, on the recommendations of the Council, that the applications/documents/forms pertaining to refund claims on account of zero-rated supplies shall be filed and processed manually till further orders. Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 168 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the CGST Act’) and for the purpose of ensuring uniformity, the following conditions and procedure are laid down for the manual filing and processing of the refund claims:
2.1 As per sub-section (3) of section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the IGST Act’) read with clause (i) of subsection (3) and sub-section (6) of section 54 of the CGST Act and rules 89 to 96A of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the CGST Rules’), a registered person may make zero-rated supplies of goods or services or both on payment of integrated tax and claim refund of the tax so paid, or make zero-rated supplies of goods or services or both under bond or Letter of Undertaking without payment of integrated tax and claim refund of unutilized input tax credit in relation to such zero rated supplies.
2.2 The refund of integrated tax paid on goods exported out of India is governed by rule 96 of the CGST Rules. The shipping bill filed by an exporter shall be deemed to be an application for refund in such cases. The application shall be deemed to have been filed only when export manifest or export report is filed and the applicant has furnished a valid return in FORM GSTR-3 or FORM GSTR-3B, as the case may be. Upon receipt of the information regarding furnishing of a valid return in FORM GSTR-3 or FORM GSTR-3B, as the case may be, from the common portal, the system designated by the Customs shall process the claim for refund and an amount equal to the integrated tax paid in respect of such export shall be electronically credited to the bank account of the applicant. Any order regarding withholding of such refund or its further sanction respectively in PART-B of FORM GST RFD-07 or FORM GST RFD-06 shall be done manually till the refund module is operational on the common portal.
2.3 The application for refund of integrated tax paid on zero-rated supply of goods to a Special Economic Zone developer or a Special Economic Zone unit or in case of zero-rated supply of services (that is, except the cases covered in paragraph 2.2 above and para 2.4 below) is required to be filed in FORM GST RFD-01A (as notified in the CGST Rules vide notification No. 55/2017 – Central Tax dated 15.11.2017) by the supplier on the common portal and a print out of the said form shall be submitted before the jurisdictional proper officer along with all necessary documentary evidences as applicable (as per the details in statement 2 or 4 of Annexure to FORM GST RFD – 01), within the time stipulated for filing of such refund under the CGST Act.
2.4 The application for refund of unutilized input tax credit on inputs or input services used in making such zero-rated supplies shall be filed in FORM GST RFD- 01A on the common portal and the amount claimed as refund shall get debited in accordance with sub-rule (3) of rule 86 of the CGST Rules from the amount in the electronic credit ledger to the extent of the claim. The common portal shall generate a proof of debit (ARN- Acknowledgement Receipt Number) which would be mentioned in the FORM GST RFD-01A submitted manually, along with the print out of FORM GST RFD-01A to the jurisdictional proper officer, and with all necessary documentary evidences as applicable (as per details in statement 3 or 5 of Annexure to FORM GST RFD-01), within the time stipulated for filing of such refund under the CGST Act.
2.5 The registered person needs to file the refund claim with the jurisdictional tax authority to which the taxpayer has been assigned as per the administrative order issued in this regard by the Chief Commissioner of Central Tax and the Commissioner of State Tax. In case such an order has not been issued in the State, the registered person is at liberty to apply for refund before the Central Tax Authority or State Tax Authority till the administrative mechanism for assigning of taxpayers to respective authority is implemented. However, in the latter case, an undertaking is required to be submitted stating that the claim for sanction of refund has been made to only one of the authorities. It is reiterated that the Central Tax officers shall facilitate the processing of the refund claims of all registered persons whether or not such person was registered with the Central Government in the earlier regime.
2.6 Once such a refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A is received in the office of the jurisdictional proper officer, an entry shall be made in a refund register to be maintained for this purpose with the following details –
Whole text of the Circular can be accessed here
4. The refund application for various taxes i.e. CT / ST / UT / IT/ Cess can be filed with any one of the tax authorities and shall be processed by the said authority, however the payment of the sanctioned refund amount shall be made only by the respective tax authority of the Centre or State government. In other words, the payment of the sanctioned refund amount in relation to CT / IT / Cess shall be made by the Central tax authority while payment of the sanctioned refund amount in relation to ST / UT would be made by the State tax/Union territory tax authority. It therefore becomes necessary that the refund order issued either by the Central tax authority or the State tax/UT tax authority is communicated to the concerned counter-part tax authority within three days for the purpose of payment of the relevant sanctioned refund amount of tax or cess, as the case may be.
5. It is requested that suitable trade notices may be issued to publicize the contents of this Circular.
6. Difficulty, if any, in implementation of the above instructions may please be brought to the notice of the Board. Hindi version would follow.
(Upender Gupta)
Commissioner (GST)
