135/05/2020 - GST : Circular on Clarification on refund related issues - Reg

Circular No.135/05/2020 - GST Page 1 of 6 CBEC-20/01/06/2019-GST Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs GST Policy Wing **** New Delhi, Dated the 31st March, 2020 To, The Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners/Principal Commissioners/ Commissioners of Central Tax (All) The Principal Director Generals/ Director Generals (All) Madam/Sir, Subject: Clarification on refund related issues – Reg. Various representations have been received seeking clarification on some of the issues relating to GST refunds. In order to clarify these issues and to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of law in this regard across the field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers conferred by section 168 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as “CGST Act”), hereby clarifies the issues detailed hereunder: 2. Bunching of refund claims across Financial Years 2.1 It may be recalled that the restriction on clubbing of tax periods across different financial years was put in vide para 11.2 of the Circular No. 37/11/2018-GST dated 15.03.2018. The said circular was rescinded being subsumed in the Master Circular on Refunds No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18.11.2019 and the said restriction on the clubbing of tax periods across financial years for claiming refund thus has been continued vide Paragraph 8 of the Circular No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18.11.2019, which is reproduced as under: “8. The applicant, at his option, may file a refund claim for a tax period or by clubbing successive tax periods. The period for which refund claim has been filed, however, cannot spread across different financial years. Registered persons having aggregate turnover of up to Rs. 1.5 crore in the preceding financial year or the current financial year opting to file FORM GSTR-1 on quarterly basis, can only apply for refund on a quarterly basis or clubbing successive quarters as aforesaid. However, refund claims under categories listed at (a), (c) and (e) in para 3 above must be filed by the applicant chronologically. This means that an applicant, after submitting a refund application under any of these categories for a certain period, shall not be subsequently allowed to file a refund claim under the same category for any previous period. This principle / limitation, however, shall not apply in cases where a fresh application is being filed pursuant to a deficiency memo having been issued earlier.” Circular No.135/05/2020 - GST Page 2 of 6 2.2 Hon’ble Delhi High Court in Order dated 21.01.2020, in the case of M/s Pitambra Books Pvt Ltd., vide para 13 of the said order has stayed the rigour of paragraph 8 of Circular No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18.11.2019 and has also directed the Government to either open the online portal so as to enable the petitioner to file the tax refund electronically, or to accept the same manually within 4 weeks from the Order. Hon’ble Delhi High Court vide para 12 of the aforesaid Order has observed that the Circulars can supplant but not supplement the law. Circulars might mitigate rigours of law by granting administrative relief beyond relevant provisions of the statute, however, Central Government is not empowered to withdraw benefits or impose stricter conditions than postulated by the law. 2.3 Further, same issue has been raised in various other representations also, especially those received from the merchant exporters wherein merchant exporters have received the supplies of goods in the last quarter of a Financial Year and have made exports in the next Financial Year i.e. from April onwards. The restriction imposed vide para 8 of the master refund circular prohibits the refund of ITC accrued in such cases as well. 2.4 On perusal of the provisions under sub-section (3) of section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act, there appears no bar in claiming refund by clubbing different months across successive Financial Years. 2.5 The issue has been examined and it has been decided to remove the restriction on clubbing of tax periods across Financial Years. Accordingly, circular No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18.11.2019 stands modified to that extent i.e. the restriction on bunching of refund claims across financial years shall not apply. 3. Refund of accumulated input tax credit (ITC) on account of reduction in GST Rate 3.1 It has been brought to the notice of the Board that some of the applicants are seeking refund of unutilized ITC on account of inverted duty structure where the inversion is due to change in the GST rate on the same goods. This can be explained through an illustration. An applicant trading in goods has purchased, say goods “X” attracting 18% GST. However, subsequently, the rate of GST on “X” has been reduced to, say 12%. It is being claimed that accumulation of ITC in such a case is also covered as accumulation on account of inverted duty structure and such applicants have sought refund of accumulated ITC under clause (ii) of sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act. 3.2 It may be noted that refund of accumulated ITC in terms clause (ii) of sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act is available where the credit has accumulated on account of rate of tax on inputs being higher than the rate of tax on output supplies. It is noteworthy that, the input and output being the same in such cases, though attracting different tax rates at different points in time, do not get covered under the provisions of clause (ii) of sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act. It is hereby clarified that refund of accumulated ITC under clause (ii) of sub-section (3) of section 54 of the CGST Act would not be applicable in cases where the input and the output supplies are the same. Circular No.135/05/2020 - GST Page 3 of 6 4. Change in manner of refund of tax paid on supplies other than zero rated supplies 4.1 Circular No. 125/44/2019-GST dated 18.11.2019, in para 3, categorizes the refund applications to be filed in FORM GST RFD-01 as under: a. Refund of unutilized input tax credit (ITC) on account of exports without payment of tax; b. Refund of tax paid on export of services with payment of tax; c. Refund of unutilized ITC on account of supplies made to SEZ Unit/SEZ Developer without payment of tax; d. Refund of tax paid on supplies made to SEZ Unit/SEZ Developer with payment of tax; e. Refund of unutilized ITC on account of accumulation due to inverted tax structure; f. Refund to supplier of tax paid on deemed export supplies; g. Refund to recipient of tax paid on deemed export supplies; h. Refund of excess balance in the electronic cash ledger; i. Refund of excess payment of tax; j. Refund of tax paid on intra-State supply which is subsequently held to be inter- State supply and vice versa; k. Refund on account of assessment/provisional assessment/appeal/any other order; l. Refund on account of “any other” ground or reason. 4.2 For the refund of tax paid falling in categories specified at S. No. (i) to (l) above i.e. refund claims on supplies other than zero rated supplies, no separate debit of ITC from electronic credit ledger is required to be made by the applicant at the time of filing refund claim, being claim of tax already paid. However, the total tax would have been normally paid by the applicant by debiting tax amount from both electronic credit ledger and electronic cash ledger. At present, in these cases, the amount of admissible refund, is paid in cash even when such payment of tax or any part thereof, has been made through ITC.