No. CLE-HO/POL/GST/18-19
Oct. 29, 2018

Members of the Council.

Sub : Refund of IGST paid on exports

Dear Member

CLE  submitted representation to the Government requesting  to Create Customs Help Desks in FIEO offices for a fortnight or organize IGST refund fortnight at Customs to clear pending IGST refunds or  Open the Alternate IGST refund mechanism window to enable refund to such exporters who have committed errors in filing shipping bills/GST returns

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has now issued a Customs Circular No.40/2018 dated 24.10.2018 stating the following.

·        It may be noted that Shipping Bills which have not been scrolled due to the IGST paid amount erroneously declared as ‘NA’ are already being handled through officer interface as per Board’s Circular 08/2018 – Customs dated 23.03.2018. (Customs Circular No. 8/2018 states that in cases where exporter has wrongly declared that shipment is not made under IGST despite paying IGST, it has been decided to allow refund of IGST through an officer interface wherein the officer can verify and satisfy himself of the actual payment of IGST based on GST return information forwarded by GSTN)

·        However, no such provision was hitherto available in respect of those Shipping Bills which were successfully scrolled, albeit with a lesser than eligible amount.

·        CBIC has been receiving representations where the refund scroll has been generated for a much lesser IGST amount than what has actually been paid against the exported goods. Broadly, this has happened due to:

• Error made by the exporter/CHA in declaring the IGST paid amount in SB or,
• Cases where Compensation Cess paid amount was not entered by the exporter in the SB along with the IGST paid amount or the same details were not transmitted by GSTN, and the scroll consequently got generated only for the IGST amount or,
• Typographical mistake by the customs officer while sanctioning the refund through officer interface.

·        In a bid to provide relief to exporters in respect of categories indicated above, Directorate of Systems has now provided a facility in ICES for the processing and sanctioning of the eligible differential IGST refund. The facility would be officer interface based and is similar to the procedure for processing certain SB005 refund claims refer Circular No 05/2018- Customs dated 23.02.2018. This facility would be available only for cases where Shipping Bills have been filed till 15.11.2018. However, exporters need to be cautious while filing details in Shipping Bill as a similar facility may not be available in future for the same mistake for referred shipping bill. Also, Customs Officers while processing claims using officer interface should exercise due diligence so that mistakes are not repeated again.

·        In order to claim the differential amount, the exporter is required to submit a duly filled and signed Revised Refund Request (RRR) annexed to this circular to the designated AC/DC A scanned copy of the RRR may also be mailed to dedicated email address of Customs locations from where exports took place. The designated/concerned AC/DC will then proceed to sanction the revised amount after due verification through the option provided in ICES, a detailed advisory on which will be communicated by DG Systems to all the System Managers shortly. Once the revised amount is approved by the designated AC/DC in the system, a fresh scroll will be available for generation for the differential amount only.

·        It may be noted that only those Shipping Bills (SB) which have already been scrolled shall be available in this facility. Further, this facility can be used only once for each eligible SB to sanction the revised IGST amount. Thus, utmost care may be taken by the exporter while submitting the RRR as well as the sanctioning officer while sanctioning the revised amount as no further provision will be available for revising the refund sanction again.

Members may kindly note the above.

Thanks and regards

R. Selvam IAS

Executive Director

COUNCIL FOR LEATHER EXPORTS

Circular