How to File GST Refund Claims Manually? Step by Step Guide

GST refund process is no longer difficult as the government has introduced an alternative process for filing GST refund claims manually for exporters. This process will be faster and the refunds will be processed within as low as seven days.

Under the GST, the exports of taxable goods or services are treated as zero-rated supplies. It means that the suppliers will not have to pay any GST on any of their exports. However, the imports are taxable under the new tax regime. Exporters can claim refunds of their input tax paid on imports. The process is, however, a little cumbersome.

Up until now, the refunds claim were to be filed online on the common portal. It was a long and tricky process The untimely supply of input credits has greatly affected the liquidity of such exporters whose businesses are completely dependent on the continuous and regular flow of cash. The things are now likely to get much easier as the government has allowed exporters to manually find refund claims.

How to File GST Refund Claims?

Exports who paid IGST and those who paid tax on inputs and those merchants who make zero-rated supplies to SEZ units can now claim refunds for their input credits.

In order to claim for ITC, an exporter has to follow the steps mentioned below.

• Download the refund Form RFD-01A from the GST Portal, you can view also here, For English and For Hindi
• Fill in the form providing correct details
• Submit the form to the Jurisdictional Commissioner of your area

“Due to the non-availability of the refund module on the common portal, it has been decided by the competent authority … that the applications/documents/forms pertaining to refund claims on account of zero-rated supplies shall be filed and processed manually till further orders,” the CBEC said in a circular.

As of now, the option for filing refund claims is not activated on the GST Portal website. The CBEC only last month started the refund process for exporters who have paid IGST and filed refund claims through the GST Portal.

From now on, exporters will have to download and manually file Form RFD-01A in order to claim input credit for the IGST paid by them. The form has to be printed and submitted to the Chief Commissioner of Central Tax and the Commissioner of State Tax.

The tax refund, upon successful verification, will be granted by the tax officer within 7 days.

Exporters making supplies to SEZ units and those who have paid GST on inputs will also be eligible to claim refunds through the manual system. However, the clarification regarding the timeline (and by when the exporters will receive the refund in their bank accounts) is still not clear.

Claim Refunds Through GSTR 2A Printout

The finance ministry recently announced that now the taxpayers can claim the refunds directly through showing up the GSTR 2A form printout to the concerned tax authority and the officials will initiate the refund disbursal procedure as soon as possible. Earlier, the invoice was required of each and every transaction for claiming the refund but now the ministry has limited the proof validation through the GSTR2A form only.

The complete details can be sorted out from here while the finance ministry will be issuing a formal notification in this regard as soon as possible.

Minister Claims Taxes Easy to Pay But Difficult to Get Refund

In a recently held exports excellence awards ceremony oorganizedby FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organisations) Eastern Region, West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra stated that the refund delivery mechanism under the GST has gone more primitive than earlier due to the manual processing of refund application. The cited reason was the lower interfacing between the GST Network (GSTN), the electronic data interchange (EDI) and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

The minister said that “Even in the state VAT system, there was no manual intervention in the entire process of filing of returns, It has been noticed that there is no interface amongst GSTN and DGFT EDI systems. Even the training given to the officers on the ground on issues like Letter of Undertaking (LUT) and related matters has not been adequate…it has been experienced that it is easy to pay tax but it is very difficult to get a refund.”

The reports stated that the refund of IGST paid on goods exported ITC refund on exported goods under LUT in July August and September is still pending. The late refund may also impact adversely on labour intensive jobs in the export sector.