NEW DELHI, JULY 02, 2017: IN the GST regime, the governing provisions related to exports are contained in section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (IGST Act). Supplies of goods and services for exports have been categorized as 'Zero Rated Supply' implying that goods could be exported under bond or Letter of Undertaking without payment of integrated tax followed by claim of refund of unutilized input tax credit or on payment of integrated tax with provision for refund of the tax paid.

The CBEC has clarified that any person making zero rated supply (i.e. any exporter) shall be eligible to claim refund under either of the following options, namely: -

(a) he may supply goods or services or both under bond or Letter of Undertaking, subject to such conditions, safeguards and procedure as may be prescribed, without payment of integrated tax and claim refund of unutilized input tax credit; or

(b) he may supply goods or services or both, subject to such conditions, safeguards and procedure as may be prescribed, on payment of integrated tax and claim refund of such tax paid on goods or services or both supplied, in accordance with the provisions of section 54 (Refunds) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act or the rules made there under (i.e. the Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017).

For the option (a), procedure to file refund has been outlined in the Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017. The exporter claiming refund of unutilized input tax credit will file an application electronically through the Common Portal, either directly or through a Facilitation Centre notified by the GST Commissioner. The application shall be accompanied by documents as prescribed in the said rules. Application for refund shall be filed only after the export manifest or an export report, as the case may be, is delivered under section 41 of the Customs Act, 1962 in respect of such goods. The formats for furnishing bond or LUT for export of goods have been separately notified under COST Rules, 2017. The said formats are attached herewith for easy reference.

For the option (b), broadly the procedure is that a registered person shall not be required to file any application for refund of integrated goods and services tax paid on supply of goods for exports. The shipping bill, having inter-alia GST invoice details, filed by an exporter shall be deemed to be an application for refund of integrated tax paid on the goods exported out of India and such application shall be deemed to have been filed only when the person in charge of the conveyance carrying the export goods duly files an export manifest or an export report covering the number and the date of shipping bills or bills of export and the applicant has furnished a valid return in FORM GSTR-3. The details of the relevant export invoices contained in FORM GSTR-1 shall be transmitted electronically by the common portal to the Customs system and the said system shall in turn electronically transmit back to the common portal a confirmation that the goods covered by the said invoices have been exported out of India. Upon receipt of information regarding furnishing of valid return in FORM GSTR-3 from the common portal, the Customs system shall process the claim for refund and an amount equal to the integrated tax paid in respect of each shipping bill or bill of export shall be electronically credited to the bank account of the applicant mentioned in his registration particulars. Government has allowed a grace period to the registrants to file returns under the new GST Law. Therefore, this refund procedure shall as a consequence come into operation only when the registrants file the above mentioned returns. Further, the exporters are free to avail option (a) or option (b). The refund shall be governed by the provisions of the section 16 of the IGST Act.

For the sake of uniformity and ease of doing business, Board has decided to simplify the procedure relating to factory stuffing hitherto carried out under the supervision of the Central Excise officers. It is the endeavor of the Board to create a trust based environment where compliance in accordance with the extant laws is ensured by strengthening Risk Management System and Intelligence setup of the department. Accordingly, Board has decided to lay down a simplified procedure for stuffing and sealing of export goods in containers.

It has been decided to do away with the sealing of containers with export goods by CBEC officials. Instead, self-sealing procedure has been put in place and the same will be effect from September 10, 2017.