The Government is examining the tax refund mechanism for exporters under goods and services tax (GST) and may announce some measures over the next few days to streamline the process and speed up repayments. Exporters say delay in refund under GST impacts business and raises working capital cost. Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the Government would take steps to boost exports.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has taken several steps to ease the process of refund for exporters, but some issues persist. It has had a detailed discussion with industry representatives on the issues faced by them in getting refunds seamless.
The Government is now looking at all the procedures, as also execution issues at the Central and State Government levels, which are impacting exporters.
According to the official, it could consider some procedural relaxations to make refunds seamless and easier. The restriction on inputs imported under some exemption notifications retrospectively is in focus, the official said, adding that the Government could consider restricting refund of taxes only for those exports that use inputs under some exemption notification.
Experts say the Government must provide some new formulation to assuage exporters’ concern on refunds. “Integrated GST refunds have streamlined largely except for internal container depots, but input tax credit refund still remains an issue,” said Ajay Sahai, Director-General of Federation of Indian Export Organisations. “The Government needs to address the situation expeditiously.”
Source :- Dailyshippingtimes.com
