Issue giving rise to the need for clarification

• Any registered person who inadvertently filed a NIL refund claim in spite of having a genuine claim for refund for a period under a specified category was not allowed to re-file the refund claim for that period under the said category in the common portal.
• Owing to the above reason, representations had been sent requesting that registered persons may be allowed to re-file the refund claim for the period and the category under which the NIL claim has inadvertently been filed
• To provide clarity on this issue and to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of the law across field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers conferred by section 168 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 has given a clarification on this matter in Circular No. 110/29/2019.

Can a registered person apply for refund after inadvertently filing NIL refund claim?

It is now clarified that a registered person who has filed a NIL refund claim in FORM GST RFD-01A/RFD-01 for a given period under a particular category, may again apply for refund for the said period under the same category only if he satisfies the following two conditions:

• The registered person must have filed a NIL refund claim in Form GST RFD -01A/RFD-01 for a certain period under a particular category.
• No refund claims in FORM GST RFD-01A/RFD-01 must have been filed by the registered person under the same category for any subsequent period.

Condition (b) shall apply ONLY for refund claims falling under the below mentioned categories:

• Refund of unutilized input tax credit (ITC) on account of exports without payment of tax
• Refund of unutilized ITC on account of supplies made to SEZ Unit/SEZ Developer without payment of tax
• Refund of unutilized ITC on account of accumulation due to inverted tax structure

NOTE : In all other cases, registered persons shall be allowed to re-apply even if the condition (b) is not satisfied

Procedure to apply for reclaim of refund

• Registered persons satisfying the above conditions may file the refund claim under "Any Other" category instead of the category under which the NIL refund claim has already been filed
• The application shall be accompanied by supporting documents which would be required to be otherwise submitted with the refund claim.
• The refund claim should pertain to the same period for which the NIL application was filed
• The proper officer shall, on receipt of claim calculate the admissible refund amount as per the applicable rules.
• Upon scrutiny of application for eligibility, if the proper officer is satisfied that the whole or any part of the amount claimed is payable as refund, he shall request the taxpayer in writing, if required, to debit the said amount from his electronic credit ledger through FORM GST DRC-03.
• On receipt of proof of such debit, the proper officer shall issue the refund order in FORM GST RFD-06 and the payment order in FORM GST RFD-05.

Disclaimer:"The information contained herein is only for informational purpose and should not be considered for any particular instance or individual or entity. We have obtained information from publicly available sources, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or it will continue to be accurate in future. No one should act on such information without obtaining professional advice after thorough examination of particular situation."