'IGST refunds worth Rs 1.12 lakh cr paid to exporters'

The revenue department on Monday said that IGST worth over Rs 1.12 lakh crore has been refunded to exporters and only Rs 3,604 crore is pending with the customs department.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said while the focus is on quick disbursal of pending refunds to exporters, data analytics has been used to identify "risky" exporter entities that take input tax credit (ITC) fraudulently and monetise it by paying IGST and taking refund thereof or taking refund of the accumulated ITC.

"Exporters have already been paid IGST (Integrated-GST) refund of over Rs 1.12 lakh crore and over 83,500 exporters have been benefited by these refunds.

"This shows that the government's efforts to fast track refunds under the GST especially to exporters are yielding results," it said.

The CBIC further said refunds of only Rs 3,604 crore are pending, and of about 1.85 lakh exporters, a total of 6,421 (about 3.4 per cent only) including some "star exporters" have been identified as risky and hence red-flagged.

"Even some of the 'star exporters' are not traceable," it added.

The risky exporters are being subject to KYC and verification process before the grant of refund. The verification so far has revealed that 1,241 exporters are not traceable at their given addresses, which include 8 'star exporters'.

In addition, adverse verification reports have been received in the case of 399 exporters, which also include 4 'star exporters'.

The Commerce Ministry gives 'star' status to exporters on export performance of the last three financial years.

As per the CBIC, since the advent of GST in July 2017, 77 per cent of India's exports have been under Letter of Undertaking, which are unaffected by the verification exercise being done by its officials.

"Even in respect of the exporters identified as risky, the government is taking all necessary steps to expedite the verification," said the CBIC in the revenue department.

At the same time, the government remains concerned about the misuse of the facility of ITC credit and refunds by few unscrupulous exporters, it added.

IGST is a tax levied on all inter-state supplies of goods and/or services. It also applies on the supply of goods and/or services in cases of import and export.