Central Tax Circulars

CGST Circular 131/2020

To

The Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners/Principal Commissioners/
Commissioners (All)

Madam/Sir,

Subject: Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed by exporters– regarding

1) As you are aware, several cases of monetisation of credit fraudulently obtained or ineligible
credit through refund of Integrated Goods & Service Tax (IGST) on exports of goods have been
detected in past few months. On verification, several such exporters were found to be non-existent
in a number of cases. In all these cases it has been found that the Input Tax Credit (ITC) was taken
by the exporters on the basis of fake invoices and IGST on exports was paid using such ITC.

2) To mitigate the risk, the Board has taken measures to apply stringent risk parameters-based
checks driven by rigorous data analytics and Artificial Intelligence tools based on which certain
exporters are taken up for further verification. Overall, in a broader time frame the percentage of
such exporters selected for verification is a small fraction of the total number of exporters claiming
refunds. The refund scrolls in such cases are kept in abeyance till the verification report in respect
of such cases is received from the field formations. Further, the export consignments/shipments
of concerned exporters are subjected to 100 % examination at the customs port.

3) While the verifications are caused to mitigate risk, it is necessary that genuine exporters do
not face any hardship. In this context it is advised that exporters whose scrolls have been kept in
abeyance for verification would be informed at the earliest possible either by the jurisdictional
CGST or by Customs. To expedite the verification, the exporters on being informed in this regard
or on their own volition should fill in information in the format attached as Annexure ‘A’ to this
Circular and submit the same to their jurisdictional CGST authorities for verification by them. If
required, the jurisdictional authority may seek further additional information for verification.
However, the jurisdictional authorities must adhere to timelines prescribed for verification.

3.1 Verification shall be completed by jurisdiction CGST office within 14 working days of
furnishing of information in proforma by the exporter. If the verification is not completed within
this period, the jurisdiction officer will bring it the notice of a nodal cell to be constituted in the
jurisdictional Pr. Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner Office.

3.2 After a period of 14 working days from the date of submission of details in the prescribed
format, the exporter may also escalate the matter to the Jurisdictional Pr. Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Central Tax by sending an email to the Chief
Commissioner concerned (email IDs of jurisdictional Chief Commissioners are in Annexure B).

3.3 The Jurisdictional Pr. Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Central Tax should
take appropriate action to get the verification completed within next 7 working days.

4) In case, any refund remains pending for more than one month, the exporter may register
his grievance at www.cbic.gov.in/issue by giving all relevant details like GSTIN, IEC, Shipping
Bill No., Port of Export & CGST formation where the details in prescribed format had been
submitted etc.. All such grievances shall be examined by a Committee headed by Member GST,
CBIC for resolution of the issue.

5) It is requested that suitable trade notices may be issued to publicize the contents of this
circular. Difficulty, if any, in implementation of this Circular may please be brought to the notice
of the Board. Hindi version would follow.

Annexure A