GST reform to make ITC refund easy for identified and risk-evaluated taxpayer: CBIC Chairman

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) The GST Council has recommended that in case of an identified and risk-evaluated taxpayer, a refund can be granted within seven days and without an officer's intervention, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, has said.

In an interaction with IANS, Agarwal said that in the case of exports, the supply is zero-rated, and in the case of zero-rated supplies, a refund of the accumulated input tax credit (ITC) is claimed.

"So now, the GST Council has recommended that in case of an identified and risk-evaluated taxpayer, a refund can be granted within 7 days and without the officer's intervention," he said.

Earlier, Agarwal mentioned that in order to continue with ease of doing business reforms, the GST registration process has been further simplified, especially for small businesses and low-risk applicants.

Under the new system, registration will be granted within three working days to eligible applicants.

Small businesses that estimate they will not be availing more than Rs 2.5 lakh of input tax credit can opt for this simplified registration.

"Such registration will be granted automatically by the system within three working days. After operating this registration, if they grow and they want to transition to the normal registration, again, there is a provision and based on the risk analysis for the normal category of registration, they can be transitioned to the normal category," Agarwal added.

The Centre has rationalised the indirect tax structure, cutting the current four slabs down to two -- scrapping the 12 per cent and 28 per cent rates, while retaining the 5 per cent and 18 per cent slabs.

Meanwhile, in what comes as a relief to e-commerce exporters, the GST Council has approved DGFT’s proposal to eliminate the value threshold for GST refunds on low-value consignments.

The relevant section of the CGST Act, 2017, will be amended to allow refunds for exports made with payment of tax, regardless of value.

This long-awaited reform addresses the concerns of small exporters, particularly those shipping through courier or postal services, and is expected to greatly simplify procedures and facilitate low-value e-commerce exports, according to the Commerce Ministry.

--IANS

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