GST Refund Provisions Relaxed by CBIC for Taxpayers to Withdraw Application

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has relaxed the mechanism of GST refund provisions that includes within its purview providing the choice to taxpayers to withdraw the application.

It has further amended GST rules and consequentially has excluded the time horizon from the date of filing of GST refund the application to the date of issuance of the deficiency memo by the tax official from the overall time limit to file refund application.

Niraj Bagri of Dhruva Advisors LLP reacted by saying that ‘GST refund applications used to be returned on the grounds of deficiency that sought the company to file a fresh application’ is a thing of the past. And The filing of rectified refund application was managed as a new refund application.

“In several instances, though the original refund application was filed within the time limit of 2 years, the department has been considering the date of rectified refund application as the relevant date resulting in rejections on the ground of breach of time limits.”

“CBIC has put rest to this controversy, by amending the rule, and providing that the time period from the date of filing of original GST refund application till the time the deficiency letter is issued, will be excluded for determining the two-year period, Bagri said.”