Circular No. 26/2017-Customs
F. No. 450/08/2015-Cus.IV
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Excise and Customs)
To
New Delhi dated the 1st July, 2017
All Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise
All Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise
All Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Customs/Customs (Preventive)
All Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs / Customs (Preventive)
Sir/Madam,
Subject: Export procedure and sealing of containerized cargo-regarding.
Goods and Service Tax has become operational from 01-07-2017. 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.
2. With the onset of GST, extant procedures relating to export of goods viz. claim of
rebate/refund, stuffing of containers at the factory, warehouse or any other place from where the
goods are intended to be exported etc. would require review of the existing procedures. In this
regard, attention is drawn to notification No’s 42/2001-CE (N.T.) to 45/2001-CE (N.T.) both dated
26.6.2001 detailing the procedure to be followed for the export of goods on payment of terminal
excise duty and 19/2004-CE (N.T.) and 20/2004-CE (N.T.), both dated 06.09.04, without payment
thereof.
A. Procedure of Export
3. 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).
4. For the option (a) above, 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.
5. 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.
COMMENTS