In order to ease the GST impact on the exports industry of India, the government has today sanctioned pending GST refunds of over Rs 30,000 crore to those exporters who are waiting to get input credit or claim back the IGST paid by them on exports.
According to a statement released by the finance ministry on 31st May 2018, Rs 16,000 crore will be refunded against the IGST paid, while Rs 14,000 crore will be given to those exporters who claim ITC on their supplies. The input credit amount to be refunded has been sanctioned by central and state governments collectively.
As per a report released by Federation of Indian Export Organisations earlier, export refund claims worth over Rs 20,000 crore were in pending status which is causing a cash flow problem for exporters.
The government clarified that Rs 14,000 crore in refunds is pending, as of present. Of the total pending refunds, Rs 7,000 crore is due to against IGST paid by exporters while the remaining Rs 7,000 crore is for input tax credit. The government is planning to sanction the pending claims in a special refund fortnight which is expected to start on May 31. All the pending refund applications received by April 30 will be cleared by central and state GST officers and customs during the said period.
As per GST rules, exporters can either pay IGST on their exports and then claim a refund of the same. Alternatively, they can directly claim a refund of the tax paid by them on inputs without having to pay IGST on exports.
The government also said that dues of exporters have not been cleared yet because the invoice number, tax amount and IGST amount in shipping invoices are not matching with the information provided by exporters in their GST returns.
