GST Council meet tomorrow; exporters may get some relief

The all powerful GST Council in its meeting tomorrow is likely to provide some relief to exporters in terms of faster refunds as well as compliance.

The full fledged meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is also likely to assess the improvements in the GST Network's functioning, officials said. This will be the 22nd meeting of the Council.

Officials in the ministry said that the Group of Ministers, under Sushil Modi, set up to look into GSTN glitches will also brief the Council on the portal's functioning.

The committee, set up under Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on issues faced by exporters, is likely to submit its preliminary report to the Council tomorrow.

Based on that the Council is likely to recommend some relaxation for exporters so that their working capital which is locked up in refunds is released, officials said.

Also, the CBEC will inform the Council that it is ready to release IGST refunds to exporters from October 10.

In a meeting with the revenue Secretary last month, exporters had said that an estimated Rs 65,000 crore is locked up in GST refunds.

Also officials said that easy compliance for exporters, like quarterly filing of returns instead of monthly filing, is likely to be discussed by the Council.

The government has already allowed exporters to furnish Letter of Undertaking (LUT) instead of bonds at the time of exports, which will ease the compliance burden and stop locking up of capital.