The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had launched a tax refund drive to ease the liquidity problems of businesses. The drive comes at a time movement restrictions in many parts of the country have disrupted business. CBIC said in instruction to field officers that the ‘special GST refund disposal drive’ will run from 15 May till 31 May “for processing and disposal of all pending GST refund claims on priority.”

The instruction said that although the GST law provides a total of 60 days for disposing of refund claims without any liability to pay interest, all the pending GST refund claims should be taken up for processing on priority. The instruction said that the endeavour should be to dispose of claims much earlier than the statutory time limits, preferably before a period of 30 days from the date of receiving the refund application.

“It is expected that during this special drive, all GST refund claims, pending as on 14 May, shall be disposed of by 31 May,” the instruction said.

CBIC earlier this month offered relief to businesses by cutting the interest and late fee for delayed reporting of March and April sales and paying applicable GST. Due date for reporting transactions in a month and paying applicable GST falls on the subsequent month and the compliance relief is applicable for the returns to be filed and taxes to be remitted in April and May.

CBIC also told senior field officials to monitor the refund performance on a daily basis and maximize the refund disposal. It also asked officials to coordinate with industry bodies, especially those representing exporters and small businesses.