1. Issue with respect to transmission of data to IEC Gateway in case of IGST refund from customs
Under Goods and Service Tax, information related to exports are furnished at following two places:
- Summary information is given in Table 3.1(b) of GSTR-3B where details are given of Value of Export and Amount of IGST paid on such export.
- Invoice wise details of export invoices are furnished in Table No. 6A of GSTR-1 wherein information is provided of Shipping Bill Number, Shipping Bill date, Port code, value of goods exported, taxes paid on such export etc.
Data furnished in Table-6A are forward to ICE gateway for further validation purpose and then post validation of data given in Table-6A with data available at ICE portal, portal starts processing GST refund.
However, for the purpose of forwarding data, a validation has been placed that Value of IGST paid on export, as declared in GSTR-3B, should be greater than or equal to IGST declared in Table-6A of GSTR-1.
2. Circular No. 12/2018-Customs dated 29th May, 2018- authority permitted transmission of Data
To deal with this issue, The ministry of Finance issued a Circular No.12/2018-Customs dated 28th May, 2018 (Sanction of pending IGST refund claims where the records have not been transmitted from the GSTN to DG Systems -reg.) read with circular 25/2019 customs dated 27th August 2019 (IGST refund mechanism to verify the IGST payments for goods exported out of India in certain cases- reg).
Through such circular, the Board addressed the issue of IGST refund and provided the following solution for the same.
- Supplier has inadvertently declared IGST paid on export as IGST paid on inter-state domestic supply while filing GSTR-3B. Since the option of revision of GSTR-3B is not available, therefore, taxpayers are not able to rectify such errors at a later stage.
- Therefore, Comparison shall be carried out of the cumulative IGST paid on Inter-state domestic supply and Zero-rated supply as declared in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the period of July, 2017 to March, 2018.
- If aggregate of IGST paid, as declared in GSTR-3B, is greater than IGST paid as declared in GSTR-1 then records shall be transmitted to Custom EDI system for further processing of refund application.
- If aggregate of IGST declared in GSTR-3B is less than aggregate of IGST declared in GSTR-1 then exporter is required to make payment of such differential amount in GSTR-3B of subsequent months. After payment of such amount, data shall be transmitted to Custom EDI System.
3. Extension of the benefits of above circular- Circular 4/2021- Customs dated 16.02.2021
CBIC received various representations that various IGST refunds were stuck due to such mis-match error as the above circular provided resolution for shipping bills filed till 31 march 2019. Therefore, refunds of IGST could not be processed related to Shipping Bills filed after 31.3.2019 due to mismatch error.
Considering the fact that error of incorrect disclosure of IGST paid on exports has been incurred in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filed for period after March, 2019, therefore, CBIC has decided that solution provided in circular No. 12/2018–Customs and 25/2019-Customs shall extend for the period of 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Provisions of above circular shall mutatis mutandis apply for the period of April, 2019 to March, 2021, i.e.,
- Comparison of cumulative IGST payment in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B shall be carried out for the period of April, 2019 to March, 2021.
- Corresponding CA certificates evidencing that there is no discrepancy in claiming refund shall be furnished by 31st march, 2021 (for period of April 2019 to March 2020) and by 30th October 2021 (for period of April 2020 to 31st March 2021).
Further if exporters have availed the benefits of this circular and has not yet submitted the CA Certificate till 15th April, 2021 and 15th November, 20201 for financial year 2019-2020 and 2020-21 respectively then the respective Customs Zones shall provide the details of such person’s GSTINs.
