Relief for exporters as app for claiming GST refunds to be launched this week

Mumbai: To facilitate easy provision of refunds to exporters, GST Network CEO Prakash Kumar on Monday said that the portal is planning to launch an online application process, as well as a separate mobile app for the same.

The GST Council in its last meet in New Delhi announced that exporters will start getting their refunds for August and September in October. The process of providing refunds for the IGST paid by exporters in July has started from October 10.

Exporters can start to claim refunds for IGST paid in August and September this week with the launch of the online application process and the mobile app.

For August and September, while the initial return GSTR- 3B has already been filed, the final return GSTR-1 has not yet been filed.

"A separate online app for claiming Integrated GST (IGST) refunds for August and September would be made available on GSTN portal this week," Kumar told PTI.

GSTN’s app will allow exporters to save and upload their sales data which are part of GSTR-1 after filling up export details in Table 6A. The table, bearing the exporters’ digital signatures, will be then extracted separately and would automatically go to the customs department.

The customs department will then tally the information with the shipping bill data and also the taxes paid in GSTR-3B. The refund amount would be either credited to exporter's bank account through ECS or a cheque would be issued in his or her name.

The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had in the last meeting recognised the fact that exporters’ credit was being blocked. He declared that each exporter will get an e-wallet, where a notional amount will be paid to him or her as an advance credit through which they can pay their taxes.

The Council also declared that for the rest of the fiscal, they will carry on their business under an exempted category paying a nominal 0.1 per cent GST.

(With PTI inputs)