In order to speed up the process of GST refund clearances to the ultimate exporters, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Friday met exporters to discuss the clearance of pending dues under the new tax regime.
Suranjan Gupta, Additional Executive Director, EEPC India reportedly said that “There are a lot of mismatches in various forms and processes that have been leading to delay in refunds”. The meeting put forward some challenges faced by exporters on the refund claim.
Pranab Das, Special Secretary and Member (Customs), Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chaired the meeting and it lasted over an hour. From that meeting he and other officials asked export associations, including EEPC, to approach the CBEC camps in field offices, in which the indirect tax body has organized to facilitate the refund process.
Sources said that both finance ministry and exporter’s body discussed the discrepancies of figures found from the exact quantum of pending refunds in both hands. According to the CBEC, about 18,000 crores of GST refunds are pending while exporters have claimed that refunds to the tune of 11,000 crores have been processed.
The Goods and Services Tax law was implemented from July 1, 2017, with huge celebrations. Even after completion of eight months of the rollout, 70% of total refunds to exporters become idle. Consequently, refund to those exporters has been delayed for eight months now. It creates the serious issue of blocking their source of working capital and creates hindrance to their business too.
The Revenue Department, on contrary to this raised an argument that there are discrepancies in forms submitted by exporters with the customs department and those with the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN).
The CBEC also issued a detailed clarification and instructed the officials not to get stuck on the minor errors and small data mismatches.
