GST REFUND

GST refund applies to any taxpayer upon making extra GST payment in the form of tax, interest, penalty, fees or any others. For the refund process, the taxpayer shall apply through FORM GST RFD-01, as prescribed. To file FORM GST RFD-01, the individual can log in to GST Common Portal, GST Facilitation Centre or a registered organization. This article describes the procedure for claiming a GST refund in detail.

Claiming GST Refund

As per Section 54 of the GST Act, any of the following situations may necessitate a GST refund application to be filed by the taxpayer:

• Tax paid on zero-rated supplies of goods or services
• Export of goods or services
• Supplies made to SEZs units and SEZ developers
• Refund of tax on the supply of goods deemed as exports
• Refund of taxes on purchase made by UN or embassies etc.
• Providing refund on account of judgment, decree, order or direction of the Appellate Authority, Appellate Tribunal or any court
• Refund of accumulated Input Tax Credit on account of inverted duty structure
• Finalisation of provisional assessment
• Refund of pre-deposit
• Excess payment due to mistake
• Refunds to International tourists of GST paid on goods in India and carried abroad at the time of their departure from India
• Refund on account of issuance of refund vouchers for taxes paid on advances against which, goods or services have not been supplied
• Refund of CGST and SGST paid by treating the supply as intraState supply which is subsequently held as inter-State supply and vice versa

GST Refund Process

GST laws have standardised procedure for processing a GST refund claim across India. The taxpayer must file all GST refund applications online in a standardised form on the GST Common Portal. The person shall also file returns on a monthly basis for claiming refund amount in the credit balance. On filing a refund application, an acknowledgement for refund application would be provided within 14 days of the refund application is acceptable.

On receiving the refund request, the concerned Officer would have to convey the status of the application within 14 days. If there are any deficiencies in the application, the GST refund request would be sent back to the applicant along with the list of deficiencies and the applicant can refile the application. If there are no errors or deficiencies, the GST refund claims, if in the order must be sanctioned within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of the claim. Officers are also not allowed to issue deficiencies memo after the 14 day period during when there are required to process the GST refund application.

Procedure for Filing Refund Request

Any taxpayer can claim a refund of any tax, interest, penalty, fees or any other amount paid by him by filing an application electronically in FORM GST RFD-01 through the GST Common Portal or through a GST Facilitation Centre. However, if a refund relates to balance in the electronic cash ledger, the taxpayer can use to claim the GST refund upon furnishing the returns for the relevant tax period in FORM GSTR-3, FORM GSTR-4 or FORM GSTR-7.