Para 2 (B) - EXPORT (INCLUDING DEEMED EXPORT) OF GOODS / SERVICES UNDER CLAIM OF REBATE OR REFUND OF ACCUMULATED CREDIT OF TAX WHEN GOODS/SERVICES ARE EXPORTED - Report on - Business Processes for GST on Refund Process - [August 2015]

2 (B) EXPORT (INCLUDING DEEMED EXPORT) OF GOODS / SERVICES UNDER CLAIM OF REBATE OR REFUND OF ACCUMULATED CREDIT OF TAX WHEN GOODS/SERVICES ARE EXPORTED: The treatment for export of goods and services and that of deemed export would be different under GST regime because of their inherent nature. Therefore these are being discussed separately as follows: EXPORT OF GOODS: i) Presently under the Central Law, every exporter has three options available for neutralization of taxes paid on inputs used for export goods or taxes paid on finished goods exported by him which are delineated hereunder: a) Obtaining non duty paid inputs and exporting final product without payment of duty. b) Obtaining duty paid inputs and claiming refund of the same at the time of export of the finished goods without payment of duty. c) Obtaining duty paid inputs, availing the input tax credit thereon and exporting finished goods after payment of duty (after utilizing such input tax credit) and thereafter claiming the rebate of the duty paid on exported goods. ii) It was noted that in the proposed GST regime, exports are proposed to be Zero rated which means that the export goods would not suffer any actual tax liability although the inputs for them would be tax paid which would be subsequently neutralized. So there should be a mechanism whereby the GST paid on the inputs or on exported finished goods, either through cash or by utilization of input tax credit, is refunded to the exporter. This would serve two objectives simultaneously. On the one hand, the ITC chain through the various dealers will not be broken and on the other hand, the exporter of the finished goods will get the refund of the GST paid on the inputs or on finished goods thereby making the exports actually free from the burden of taxes. The system should be simple and efficient so that exporters do not experience any hassles while claiming refund of taxes. For this it is essential to devise a system based verification mechanism so that human intervention is reduced to the minimum. iii) It is recommended that the first option mentioned above i.e. option to procure duty free inputs for exported goods should not be available in the GST regime. This would obviate the requirement of submission of statutory form and the supplier of goods to the actual exporter would be required to pay the GST and will not be required to comply with various formalities presently required for making tax free supplies. iv) It is further recommended that other two options may be made available to the exporter in the proposed GST regime. It is recommended that GST Law drafting Committee may provide for the provision of rebate and the legality of the same will be examined at the time of vetting of the GST law by the Law Ministry. v) Since the process for payment of refund of GST paid on inputs (including input services) or payment of rebate of GST paid on finished goods is similar to a large extent, the same is being discussed here together. The following process is proposed for making this system as simple as possible: a) The IEC details of taxpayer will be captured at the time of issuance of GSTIN and the same can be verified online with DGFT for verifying the correctness of the exporter s particulars. b) The refund of ITC / rebate of GST paid on exported goods may be granted on submission of application to this effect by the taxpayer. c) Since the trigger point for refund is export of goods, therefore the event of export needs to be verified (mostly online) so as to minimize cases of erroneous / fraudulent claims of refund / rebate. d) It is recommended that linkage between ICEGATE of Customs administration and the proposed GSTN of GST administration may be established so that online verification of the exports can be carried out. In any case such linkage has to be established to verify IGST paid at the time of import of goods / services. e) It is also noted that, as per IGST Model, there is a requirement for online filing of invoice wise sale/purchase details by the taxpayers along with the monthly returns. These details can be linked with the Customs data (for export cases) available with ICEGATE. f) Normally for export verification the following documents are sought from the applicant: i) Shipping Bill (Export Promotion copy); ii) Mate s Receipt/Transporter s Challan (in case of export by road); iii) Export invoice; iv) Packing list; v) Bill of Lading/ Airway Bill; vi) Bank Realization Certificate (BRC). g) Since it is proposed to establish linkage between ICEGATE and GSTN, therefore shipping bill, which includes relevant details from the export invoice and packing list, can be verified online and there would not be any need for the exporter to submit the same. Further, Mate s Receipt and Bill of Lading are the crucial documents that determine the occurrence of event of export, the exporter would be required to upload the scanned copies of the same with online refund application. As regards the BRC, it was noted that as per the RBI guidelines, the exporter has a time period of one year from the date of export, within which the export proceeds are required to be remitted into India. Thus BRC will not be available till the time export proceeds are realized. Therefore it is recommended that submission of BRC may not be insisted upon at the time of filing of refund application and post facto verification can be carried out by the tax authorities. The refund in such cases should be subject to submission of BRC details within a period of maximum one year or such period as extended by RBI from the date of the export. If such details are not submitted at the portal at which the refund application was made, the portal should generate an alert/report for the concerned tax authorities to take up appropriate action. In case of any short receipt of export receipts, necessary action for recovery of proportionate refunded amount may be taken accordingly. h) BRC, however, may be verified at the time of exports itself if the payment has already been received in advance. It is also recommended that e-BRC module may be integrated in the Refund process under GST. i) The time limit for filing of refund application is normally linked with the date of export and it is proposed that this time limit should be fixed at one year from the date of export. This date is the date on which the proper officer under the Customs Act gives an order for export of goods commonly known as Let Export Order (LEO). This date can also be verified online in view of the proposed linkage between ICEGATE and GSTN. j) Once the export is established, verification of the duty paid on the final products at the time of export is required to be carried out. For this, normally, copy of challans/ invoices evidencing duty payment are sought from the exporter and the same are verified manually by the jurisdictional authority. In the proposed GSTN, the payment of GST on exported goods can be verified online (as the sales invoices are required to be filed along with the monthly return) and there is no need for separate submission of these documents. Once the GST paid character of exported goods is established, refund can be sanctioned. k) In respect of refund claimed for GST paid on inputs (including input services) used for exported goods, once the export is established, verification of the GST paid on the inputs (including input services) as well as their utilization for the exports is required to be carried out. For this normally copy of invoices evidencing GST payment are sought from the exporter and the same are verified manually by the jurisdictional authority. Besides a declaration is filed by the applicant with the proper officer declaring inter alia input-output ratio for inputs on which refund is sought. In the proposed GST regime, the GST paid character of inputs (including input services) can be established online (as the purchase invoices are required to be filed along with the monthly return) and the refund of input tax credit on inputs (including input services) can be sanctioned once the input tax credit has been matched from the purchase and sale statements filed by the exporter and supplier respectively and there is no need for separate submission of these documents. As regards utilization of the inputs for exports, a simple formula can be adopted that will provide for proportionate credit based on export turnover divided by total turnover. Moreover, a declaration can be obtained from the exporter regarding utilization of inputs in the exported goods. EXPORT OF SERVICES: i) It is noted that in case of export of services there are no custom documents that can substantiate the occurrence of event of export as no shipping bill is required to be filed. Thus invoice and Bank Realization Certificate (BRC) are the only documents that can substantiate the occurrence of event of exports. It is, therefore, recommended that in the case of export of services, BRC would be required before sanction of the refund of GST paid on inputs (input services)/rebate of GST paid on exported services. ii) It is further noted that the invoice and BRC are the crucial documents for filing of the refund application. Therefore the relevant date, in case of export of services, will be the date of invoice or the date of BRC, whichever is later. This will take care of the situation if the payment has already been received in advance. It is also recommended that e-BRC module may be integrated in the refund process under GST. iii) It is suggested that since exports of services cannot be verified online through ICEGATE, there should be a separate application for refund of service exported. DEEMED EXPORT OF GOODS OR SERVICES: i) It was noted that there is a concept of deemed export for situations listed in Chapter 8 of the Foreign Trade Policy. Supplier of domestically produced duty paid goods when supplied to EOUs / SEZs / Projects under International Competitive Bidding (ICB) / Mega Power Plants/World Bank Funded Projects can seek refund of terminal excise duty as also drawback of the duty paid on the inputs used in manufacture of such goods. However such refund is not permissible for VAT paid on such domestically supplied goods. ii) It is recommended that the deemed export need to be treated on equal footing as export and the similar provision as detailed above for actual exports of goods or services would be applicable except the following: a) The supplier of final goods, in the course of deemed export, will pay the IGST on his supplies and can claim refund, only if, the IGST amount has not collected from the recipient. It is also required to be verified that the recipient has not availed the input tax credit in respect of such supplies. b) The supplier may file a simple refund application along with a Chartered Accountant s Certificate certifying the fact of nonpassing of the GST burden by him, being claimed as refund. GST Law Drafting Committee may prescribe a threshold amount below which self-certification (instead of CA Certificate) would be sufficient. c) The recipient unit would be eligible for refund of IGST, if it has actually paid IGST at the time of obtaining goods / services from the domestic supplier. In no case, both the supplier and the recipient unit can obtain refund at the same time in respect of the same transaction. A suitable validation to block such double claim should be built in the GSTN /refund processing backend system. d) Such recipients may not be registered under GST regime and therefore they would have to submit copies of all the invoices, etc. in case claim of refund is filed by them. iii) It is also recommended that this recommendation may be specifically brought to the notice of EC as this is deviation from the present practice being followed by the States. GENERAL: i) It was suggested that as a thumb rule, up to 90% of the refund claimed by the taxpayer may be sanctioned automatically by the system. The balance amount of refund may be granted after completion of verification of documents / accounts to be done at the end of the financial year and to be completed within a period of three months. The issue was discussed and it is recommended that partial refund may not be allowed and entire refund claim may be sanctioned within the time limit laid down in the GST Law. ii) It was noted that there may be certain goods on which Customs Export Duty may be leviable. It is recommended that in such cases refund of ITC of GST paid on inputs (including input services) used for such exported goods may not be admissible. iii) Requirement of BRC for sanction of refund in respect of export of services and as a post facto verification in case of export of goods may be provided in the GST Law. iv) It was noted that the exports would be treated as inter-state supplies and therefore IGST would be required to be paid by the taxpayer in cases GST is paid at the time of export. Refund of such IGST would have to be paid by the Centre. In case of refund of GST paid on inputs (including input services) used for exported goods, the refund of CGST, SGST or IGST may arise and the same needs to be paid by the respective tax administration. A suitable validation to block use of same tax invoices for more than one refund claim should be built in the GSTN /refund processing backend system. v) It was further noted that the principle of unjust enrichment is not applicable in case of actual export of goods or services as the recipient is located outside the taxable territory. In case of deemed exports, however, the concept is applicable. vi) It is further recommended that the amount of input tax credit claimed as refund may be blocked at the time of time of submission of application for refund itself. And if the refund claim is rejected wholly or partially the rejected portion of the ITC claim amount will be restored in the ITC ledger of the applicant.