CBIC issues Clarification for processing of Refund Applications which are Wrongly Mapped on Portal [Read Circular]

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs ( CBIC ) has issued clarifications for the doubts raised in respect of the processing of refund applications in Form GST RFD-01A submitted by taxpayers which have been electronically transferred to the wrong tax authority.

It has been reported by the field formations that administrative assignment of some of the taxpayers to the Central or the State tax authority has not been updated on the common portal in accordance with the decision taken by the respective tax authorities, in pursuance of the guidelines issued by the GST Council Secretariat, vide Circular No. 01/2017 dated 20.09.2017, regarding division of taxpayer base between the Centre and States to ensure Single Interface under GST.

In the Circular issued by CBIC said that “Prior to 31.12.2018, refund applications were being processed only after submission of printed copies of FORM GST RFD 01A in the respective jurisdictional tax offices. Subsequent to the issuance of Circular No.79/53/2018-GST dated 31.12.2018, copies of refund applications are no longer required to be submitted physically in the jurisdictional tax office. Now, the common portal forwards the refund applications submitted on the said portal to the jurisdictional proper officer of the tax authority to whom the taxpayer has been administratively assigned”.

The CBIC also addressed Doubts raised as to whether, in such cases, application for refund can at all be processed by the proper officer of the State tax authority or the Central tax authority to whom the refund application has been wrongly transferred by the common portal.

The board also clarified that in such cases, where reassignment of refund applications to the correct jurisdictional tax authority is not possible on the common portal, the processing of the refund claim should not be held up and it should be processed by the tax authority to whom the refund application has been electronically transferred by the common portal. After the processing of the refund application is complete, the refund processing authority may inform the common portal about the incorrect mapping with a request to update it suitably on the common portal so that all subsequent refund applications are transferred to the correct jurisdictional tax authority.