GST Refund: Rules, Provisions & Claim Process

Scenarios when GST refund is applicable

Under Section 54 of the GST law, the term ‘refund’ in the context of GST would include the following instances –

• Refund of output tax which has been paid on zero-rated supply of goods and/or services
• Refund of input tax on inputs or on input services which have been used to make zero-rated supplies
• Refund of tax levied on goods which are categorised as deemed exports
• Refund of the unutilized input tax credit as specified under Section 54(3) of the GST Act due to an inverted duty structure.

Besides these types of refunds which have been specified under Section 54 of the GST Act, there can also be other types of refunds like the following –

• Refund of tax on export of goods and services
• Excess payment of GST due to an error or inadvertence
• Refund on finalization of provisional assessment
• Refund of the tax paid by bodies of the United Nations, para-military forces, army canteens, etc.
• Refund of tax on pre-deposit if there is an appeal
• Refund for the additional balance in the Electronic Cash Register
• Refund of tax levied on supplies made to SEZs
• Other miscellaneous refunds

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When to claim GST refunds?

Now you know the instances when you can claim a GST refund but do you know when should the refund be claimed?

The application for claiming a GST refund should be made within 2 years of the relevant date. The concept of ‘relevant date’ differs across the different instances of GST refunds. Here are the relevant dates for common instances of GST refunds –

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Who can claim a GST Refund?

GST refund would be payable to an applicant only when the amount is relevant to the following –

• The amount is the refund of tax and interest thereon or any other amount which is paid by the applicant. Moreover, refund would be payable when the individual has not passed on the tax and interest thereon or any other amount to any other individual
• The amount is the tax or interest borne by specific individuals whose name has been notified by the State Government or the Central Government based on the recommendations made by the GST Council.

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When is the refund paid by the Government?

After the application for GST refund is submitted by the applicant, the refund is usually paid within period of 60 days. If, however, the refund has not been paid within 60 days, an interest would have to be paid on the delayed refund. Such interest would be calculated on a rate specified by the Central or the State Government based on the recommendation of the GST Council. The period over which interest would be calculated would be from the expiry of the refund due date till the date that the refund is paid. For example, if a GST refund was filed on 1st July, 2019, the refund should be paid by the Government by 1st September, 2019. However, if there is a delay and the refund is paid by 1st December, 2019, interest would be charged for the three months over which the refund was delayed.

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Things to remember

Here are some important aspects of GST refund which you should know about –

• If the amount of GST refund is up to INR 1000, no refund would be paid
• If an order which results in a GST refund is under appeal or further proceedings and such appeal and proceedings is pending, the refund can be withheld. Withholding is usually done when the Commissioner or Board feels that the refund would have a negative impact on the revenue of the assessee. The assessee would then be informed of the withholding of the refund and the refund would be paid after the proceedings or appeal is done. If the result of the proceedings or the appeal is in favour of the assessee, an interest would also be payable on the withheld refund.
• The assessee should submit documentary proof of the fact that the tax, interest or any other amount paid was not transferred by him to any other individual. However, if the refund amount is below INR 5 lakhs, no documentary proof would be required. In that case, a self-declaration by the asseessee would be enough which would state that the tax, amount or interest has not been passed on to another individual.
• In case of refund on the GST paid on export of goods or services, provisional refund of 90% would only be paid. The remainder would be paid after verification of the documents of the assessee.

So, understand the instances when GST refund becomes applicable and the rules for claiming the refund so that you can get refund of the extra tax that you might have paid.

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