✦ EXPERT GST ADVISORY
GST Consultant in Gurgaon for Registration, Return Filing & Compliance
Partner-led GST advisory that keeps your business compliant, your Input Tax Credit protected, and your notices answered, before they become penalties.
Gupta Varundeep & Co. (GVC Audit) is a Chartered Accountant firm in Gurgaon providing end-to-end GST services, registration, monthly GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filing, GSTR-2B reconciliation, GST audits, and notice representation, for startups, MSMEs, manufacturers, exporters, and ecommerce brands across Gurgaon and Delhi NCR. Every engagement is reviewed by a qualified CA, not handed to a junior processor.
- ICAI-Registered Chartered Accountants
- 100% On-Time Return Filing Record
- Serving Startups to ₹100+ Crore Enterprises
- Partner-Reviewed Filings, Every Month
20+ Years
200+
Find out if you are owed a GST refund
Answer four questions. Nothing is stored until you choose to send it.
The money is yours. The paperwork is what is holding it.
A refund claim rarely fails because the business was not entitled to it. It fails on the reconciliation behind it — a shipping bill that does not match GSTR-1, an adjusted total turnover computed on the wrong base, a deficiency memo nobody answered, a 15-day reply window that closed while the file sat with someone junior. And since 1 October 2025 the system itself scores your claim for risk, so your compliance history now decides whether you wait a week or a quarter.
The order deadline
Past it, interest runs at 6% a year under Section 56 — and almost nobody claims it.
To reply to a notice
Miss the RFD-08 window and a recoverable claim turns into an appeal.
The filing limit
Calculate the relevant date wrong and a valid refund simply expires.
Every refund route, end to end
Whichever situation you are in, there is a form, a statement and a formula behind it. We handle all of them.
Export Refunds — LUT
You are accumulating ITC you cannot use. We compute the claim under Rule 89(4), file RFD-01 with Statement 3, and push for the 90% provisional sanction.
Learn moreExport Refunds — IGST
No RFD-01 here — your shipping bill is the claim. When it does not arrive, it is a GSTR-1 / GSTR-3B / ICEGATE mismatch. We find it and clear it.
Learn moreInverted Duty Structure
Inputs taxed higher than output. GST 2.0 created new inverted-duty pockets in September 2025. We build the Rule 89(5) claim and file it on a quarterly rhythm.
Learn moreSEZ & Deemed Exports
Zero-rated, with or without tax. The SEZ officer's endorsement is where these break. We get the file complete before it is filed.
Learn moreExcess Tax & Cash Ledger
Duplicate challans, wrong-head payments, an intra-state supply later held inter-state, or a balance idling in the cash ledger. Straightforward — if the reconciliation is right.
Learn moreRejected Claims & Appeals
We reply to the RFD-08 in Form RFD-09 inside the 15-day window, attend the hearing, and appeal — including before the GST Appellate Tribunal — where the rejection is wrong in law.
Learn moreMost GST refund guides online describe a portal that no longer exists
The refund regime was rebuilt between October 2025 and the Finance Act, 2026. If your advisor is still working from the old process, you are leaving both speed and money on the table.
Risk-based provisional refunds
The system now scores every claim. Low-risk claims get 90% sanctioned in RFD-04. Your compliance history is now your refund speed.
Inverted duty joins the 90% route
Interim from October 2025, then given statutory footing by the Finance Act 2026 amendment to Section 54(6). The biggest working-capital change in years.
Rs.1,000 export floor removed
Small courier and postal exporters can finally claim low-value IGST. The floor still applies to every other refund category.
Invoice-based filing
Service exports, SEZ and deemed exports moved from tax-period to invoice-based filing. Filing it the old way gets a deficiency memo.
The three-year filing bar
Returns are barred three years after their due date — and no returns means no refund. Unfiled periods can make a refund permanently unclaimable.
From "I think we're owed something" to money in the bank
Eligibility & quantum review
We work out which heads you can claim, under which route, and what the claim is actually worth once Rule 89(4)/(5) is applied properly. You get a number and a document checklist before you commit to anything.
Pre-filing clean-up
Reconcile GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-2B and your IMS dashboard. Close return gaps before the three-year bar makes them permanent. Fix shipping-bill and invoice mismatches before Customs ever sees them. This is where refunds are won or lost.
Filing
Pre-application form, RFD-01, the correct statement, invoice-level upload, CA certificate where the claim crosses Rs.2 lakh, bank validation — reviewed by a partner before submission.
Provisional refund follow-through
We track the RFD-02 acknowledgement and press for the 90% provisional sanction in RFD-04 where you qualify under the risk-based rules.
Notices, sanction & interest
We answer deficiency memos and RFD-08 notices inside the reply window, represent you at hearings, and claim interest under Section 56 where the 60-day deadline was breached.
What the price of a proper claim actually buys
| Doing it yourself | A filing website | GVC Audit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who reviews the claim | You | A processor | A qualified CA — partner-reviewed |
| Rule 89(4)/(5) computation | Your own reading | Whatever you type in | Computed & defended, workings kept |
| Pre-filing reconciliation | Usually skipped | Not offered | 1 / 3B / 2B / IMS reconciled first |
| Deficiency memo (RFD-03) | Re-file and hope | Extra fee | Corrected & re-filed, included |
| RFD-08 notice reply | On your own | Out of scope | Drafted, filed in 15 days, hearing attended |
| Rejection & appeal | Find help fast | Out of scope | Argued — including at the GSTAT |
| Interest under Section 56 | Rarely claimed | Not tracked | Claimed where 60 days breached |
What that looks like in practice
⚠ Placeholder cases — replace each with a real engagement before publishing, or remove this section.
Inputs at 18%, output moved to 5% after the September 2025 rate change. Inverted-duty credit was piling up with no claim being filed.
We built the Rule 89(5) claim, put it on a fixed quarterly calendar, and the first claim came through the provisional route.
Refund stuck on a missing FIRC trail and a tax-period-based filing after the rules moved to invoice-based.
Refiled correctly under Statement 2. Deficiency memo cleared.
Small-value courier consignments where the IGST on each shipment fell below the Rs.1,000 floor.
Claim mapped and queued against the Section 54(14) amendment.
How we work with you
One-off refund claim
A single claim, filed and followed to sanction. Fee quoted after the eligibility review, based on refund type and volume of invoices.
Retained refund cycle
For exporters and inverted-duty manufacturers claiming every quarter. Reconciliation, filing and follow-up on a fixed calendar, at a fixed monthly fee.
Rescue engagement
You already have a deficiency memo, an RFD-08 notice or a rejection order. Priced on the file.
📋 Table of Contents
- Introduction to GST Refund
- What is GST Refund?
- Who can claim a GST Refund
- What Changed in 2025-26 and Why it Matters to Your Cash Flow
- Step-by-step GST Refund Process
- How to claim a GST refund
- Documents needed for GST refund
- Time Limit for GST Refund
- How to check your GST refund status
- Why do GST refund claims get rejected?
- How GVC Audit handles your GST refund?
GST Refund: Who Can Claim, How to Claim, and How to Track It
A GST refund is money the government returns to you when you have paid more GST than you owed, or when input tax credit piles up in your electronic credit ledger and you cannot use it. The main claimants are exporters, SEZ suppliers, manufacturers stuck in an inverted duty structure, and businesses that overpaid or paid under the wrong head. You claim it by filing Form GST RFD-01 on the GST portal within two years of the relevant date. Since 1 October 2025, low-risk claims for exports, SEZ supplies and inverted duty structure get 90% of the refund provisionally often within days rather than months.
What is a GST refund?
Section 54 of the CGST Act, 2017 gives a registered person the right to claim back tax, interest or any other amount paid in excess. In practice, a GST refund arises in two very different situations, and the difference matters because they are processed differently. The first is cash you overpaid an extra challan, a wrong head, tax paid on an intra-state supply later held to be inter-state, or a balance sitting unused in your electronic cash ledger. The second, and the bigger one for most businesses, is credit you cannot use: input tax credit that accumulates because your outputs are zero-rated (exports and SEZ supplies) or because your inputs are taxed at a higher rate than your outputs (an inverted duty structure). That credit is not a rounding error. For a mid-sized exporter or a textile or components manufacturer, it is working capital sitting in a ledger doing nothing. The refund mechanism exists to release that money. Whether you actually get it depends almost entirely on whether the paperwork behind the claim holds up.
Who can claim a GST refund?
You can claim a GST refund if you fall into any of these categories:
- Exporters of goods either you exported on payment of IGST and want the IGST back, or you exported under a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) without paying tax and want the accumulated ITC back.
- Exporters of services same two routes, but you also need proof of foreign inward remittance (FIRC/BRC).
- Suppliers to SEZ units and SEZ developers supplies to an SEZ for authorised operations are zero-rated, with or without payment of tax.
- Manufacturers under an inverted duty structure your inputs carry a higher GST rate than your finished goods, so credit accumulates faster than you can use it. Common in textiles, footwear, fertiliser, pumps and motors, EV and auto components, and renewable-energy equipment.
- Deemed export suppliers and recipients one of the two can claim, not both.
- Businesses that overpaid tax through a return error, a duplicate challan, or payment under the wrong tax head.
- Businesses with an unused electronic cash ledger balance this is your own money and can be claimed back at any time.
- Anyone who wins a refund through an order an appeal, an adjudication order, an appellate order, or a court decision, including refund of a pre-deposit.
- UN bodies, embassies and notified international organisations through Form RFD-10, off the back of GSTR-11.
- Unregistered persons for example a homebuyer or an insurance policyholder whose contract was cancelled and who cannot get a credit note from the supplier because the time limit has passed. There is a specific route for this.
One important limitation to know up front: in an inverted duty structure, the refund formula in Rule 89(5) only allows credit on input goods. Tax you paid on input services freight, job work, consultancy, rent stays trapped as a cost. Industry has been pressing the GST Council to remove this distinction, and it is expected to be discussed at the 57th Council meeting. As of July 2026 the restriction still applies. Plan your claim on that basis, and keep the workings ready in case the position changes.
What changed in 2025–26 and why it matters to your cash flow
Most GST refund guides online were last updated before the reforms of late 2025. If you are working from one of them, you are working from a picture that no longer matches the portal. Here is what actually changed.
90% provisional refund now runs on a system risk score
Rule 91(2) of the CGST Rules was amended by Notification No. 13/2025-Central Tax dated 17 September 2025, with effect from 1 October 2025. CBIC then issued Instruction No. 06/2025-GST dated 3 October 2025 explaining how it works. The GST system now evaluates each refund application and flags it as low-risk or not. If your claim is flagged low-risk, the officer sanctions 90% of the claimed amount provisionally in Form RFD-04 the human discretion that used to sit at the front of this process has largely been replaced by a risk engine. There is a catch worth understanding. A proviso to Rule 91(2) still lets the officer refuse provisional sanction in a particular case and go straight to detailed examination but he must record his reasons in writing, and CBIC has explicitly told officers to use that power sparingly and not to deny provisional refunds on mere presumption. Separately, Notification No. 14/2025-Central Tax notifies a class of registered persons who do not get provisional refunds on zero-rated supplies at all. And if a detailed check later shows you were paid more than you were entitled to, the excess is recovered through a show-cause notice in RFD-08 read with Section 73, 74 or 74A.
What this means practically: your compliance history is now, quite literally, your refund speed. Filing hygiene, ITC reconciliation and a clean notice record are no longer virtues they are the input variables of a score that decides whether you wait seven days or three months for your money.
Inverted duty structure claims now get provisional refunds too
Until October 2025, the 90% provisional route under Section 54(6) was only available for zero-rated supplies. Inverted duty claimants the manufacturers with the worst working-capital problem had to wait for full scrutiny. Instruction 06/2025-GST extended the same 90% provisional treatment to inverted duty structure claims filed on or after 1 October 2025 as an interim trade-facilitation measure, and the Finance Act, 2026 has now amended Section 54(6) itself to put it on a statutory footing. The amendment takes effect from a date to be notified by the Central Government. For a manufacturer accumulating, say, ₹1 crore of inverted-duty credit a quarter, the difference between a provisional sanction in days and a full scrutiny in months is real money at typical working-capital borrowing costs, several lakhs a year on that claim size alone.
The ₹1,000 refund floor is being removed for export refunds
Section 54(14) says no refund is paid if the amount is less than ₹1,000. For a small exporter shipping through courier or post handicrafts, samples, e-commerce parcels each consignment throws off an IGST amount too small to claim, and the amounts quietly accumulate into a number that is anything but small. The Finance Act, 2026 carves out an exception: the ₹1,000 floor will not apply where goods are exported out of India on payment of tax. This too comes into force from a date to be notified.
Note the limit of the change: the ₹1,000 floor continues to apply to every other refund category inverted duty claims, excess cash ledger balances, excess tax paid. Only export-of-goods-with-tax is carved out. Check whether the commencement notification has issued before you rely on it for a specific claim.
Refund filing moved from tax periods to invoices
A GSTN advisory of 8 May 2025 changed the mechanics for three categories export of services with payment of tax, supplies to SEZ with payment of tax, and deemed exports. You no longer select a “from” and “to” tax period. You pick the refund category, upload the eligible invoices, and file the relevant statement (Statement 2 for service exports, Statement 4 for SEZ, Statement 5B for deemed exports). Once uploaded, those invoices are locked to the claim. A further advisory of 12 June 2025 fixed a long-standing irritant for QRMP taxpayers: refunds can now be filed on the basis of invoices reported through the Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) for the first two months of a quarter, instead of the portal wrongly flagging those months as non-filed. And an advisory of 28 August 2025 rebuilt refunds arising from assessment, enforcement, appeal or revision orders, so that negative demand balances now auto-populate into RFD-01.
The three-year filing bar can destroy a refund before you ever claim it
This is the one almost nobody connects to refunds. GST returns can no longer be filed once three years have passed from their due date the bar is live on the portal. Refund claims, meanwhile, require that GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the relevant periods have been filed. Put those two rules together and a business sitting on old, unfiled returns for a period in which it accumulated refundable credit can reach a point where the return is permanently barred, the refund is therefore permanently unclaimable, and no application, appeal or condonation will bring it back. If you have gaps in your filing history for any period in which you exported, supplied to an SEZ, or accumulated inverted-duty credit, treat that as urgent not as housekeeping.
The GST refund process, step by step
Refund of IGST paid on export of goods is the exception to everything below: there is no RFD-01 at all. Your shipping bill is treated as the refund application. The data flows from Table 6A of GSTR-1 and Table 3.1(b) of GSTR-3B to ICEGATE, Customs matches it against the shipping bill and the Export General Manifest, and the refund is credited to your bank account. Which means the refund lives or dies on the match invoice number, shipping bill number, port code, and the IGST in GSTR-3B being at least equal to what you declared in GSTR-1.
For every other refund type, the sequence is:
- File Form RFD-01 on the GST portal with the relevant statement and supporting documents. An ARN is generated immediately and sent to your registered email and mobile.
- The officer issues an acknowledgement in Form RFD-02 within 15 days if the application is complete or a deficiency memo in Form RFD-03 if it is not. A deficiency memo is not a rejection, but it does mean the claim is re-credited to your ledger and you must file a fresh application.
- Where you qualify, 90% of the claim is sanctioned provisionally in Form RFD-04 within seven days of acknowledgement, subject to the risk-based rules described above.
- If the officer proposes to reject the claim in whole or in part, he must issue a show-cause notice in Form RFD-08. You reply in Form RFD-09 within 15 days. Miss this window and the rejection becomes very hard to undo.
- The final sanction or rejection order is passed in Form RFD-06, and the payment advice in Form RFD-05. The law requires the order within 60 days of receipt of a complete application.
- If the refund is delayed beyond those 60 days, interest is payable to you under Section 56 at 6% per annum rising to 9% per annum where the refund arises from an order in appeal or adjudication and is still not paid within 60 days of your application.
- If a claim is rejected or a provisional refund has to be reversed, the amount is re-credited to your electronic credit or cash ledger through Form PMT-03.
| Form | What It Is | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| RFD-01 | GST refund application filed by the taxpayer. | Within 2 years from the relevant date. |
| RFD-02 | Acknowledgement confirming receipt of a complete refund application. | Within 15 days of filing. |
| RFD-03 | Deficiency Memo issued when the refund application is incomplete or contains errors. | Within 15 days of filing. |
| RFD-04 | Provisional sanction order for 90% of the eligible refund amount. | Within 7 days from the acknowledgement (RFD-02). |
| RFD-05 | Payment Advice issued for releasing the sanctioned refund amount. | Issued after RFD-04 or RFD-06, as applicable. |
| RFD-06 | Final order sanctioning or rejecting the refund claim. | Within 60 days of receiving a complete refund application. |
| RFD-07 | Order for adjustment or withholding of the refund. | Case-specific. |
| RFD-08 | Show Cause Notice (SCN) issued before rejecting a refund claim. | Case-specific. |
| RFD-09 | Taxpayer's reply to the Show Cause Notice issued in Form RFD-08. | Within 15 days from the date of the notice. |
| RFD-10 | Refund application for United Nations bodies, embassies, and notified organizations. | Within 2 years from the end of the relevant quarter. |
| RFD-11 | Letter of Undertaking (LUT) for exporting goods or services without payment of Integrated GST (not a refund form). | Before making exports without payment of tax. |
| RFD-01W | Application for withdrawal of a previously filed refund claim. | Before the refund is sanctioned. |
| PMT-03 | Order for re-crediting the Electronic Credit Ledger after refund rejection or reversal. | Issued upon rejection or reversal of the refund claim. |
How to claim a GST refund: the RFD-01 walkthrough
Before you start, two prerequisites. First, all returns due up to the date of the refund application must be filed GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for regular taxpayers, CMP-08 or GSTR-4 for composition taxpayers, GSTR-5 for non-residents. Second, file the refund pre-application form once. It is a one-time, non-editable declaration of business type, Aadhaar of the authorised signatory, IEC date for exporters, export turnover, income tax paid, and capital expenditure. It cannot be corrected after submission, so check it before you hit submit.
Then:
- Log in to the GST portal and go to Services → Refunds → Application for Refund.
- Select your refund category and click “Create refund application”. The categories map to different statements: Statement 1A for inverted duty, Statement 2 for export of services with tax, Statement 3 for export of goods/services without tax, Statement 4 for SEZ supplies, Statement 5B for deemed exports, Statement 6 for tax paid under the wrong head, Statement 8 for unregistered persons.
- Download the relevant statement template, fill in your invoice-level data, generate the JSON (or CSV, where allowed) and upload it. Validate and fix any errors the portal throws.
- Enter the computation for exports without payment of tax: turnover of zero-rated supply, adjusted total turnover, and net ITC (Rule 89(4)). For inverted duty: turnover of inverted-rated supply, tax payable on that supply, adjusted total turnover, and net ITC (Rule 89(5)). The portal validates your figures against a system-computed maximum.
- Attach supporting documents up to 10 files, 5 MB each and select the bank account for credit. It must be a validated account linked to your GSTIN.
- Preview, tick the undertaking and self-declaration, and file with DSC or EVC. A saved draft only survives 15 days.
- Note the ARN. Everything after this point is tracked against it.
Documents you need
- Form RFD-01 and the relevant statement (invoice-level).
- Tax invoices covering the claim.
- Payment challans, where you are claiming tax actually paid.
- Shipping bills and the Export General Manifest, for export of goods.
- FIRC or BRC proof of foreign inward remittance for export of services.
- LUT (Form RFD-11) where you exported without payment of tax.
- Endorsement from the SEZ specified officer confirming receipt for authorised operations, for SEZ supplies.
- A declaration that the incidence of tax has not been passed on to anyone else the unjust enrichment declaration.
- A certificate from a chartered accountant or cost accountant where the refund claim exceeds ₹2 lakh and does not fall in the exempted categories (Rule 89(2)).
- Validated bank account details linked to the GSTIN.
Time limit: two years from the relevant date
Section 54(1) gives you two years but two years from what? The “relevant date” is defined separately for each refund type and getting it wrong is one of the more common ways a good claim dies.
| Refund Scenario | Relevant Date |
|---|---|
| Goods exported by sea or air | Date on which the ship or aircraft carrying the goods leaves India. |
| Goods exported by land | Date on which the goods cross the Indian frontier. |
| Goods exported by post | Date of dispatch of the goods by the post office. |
| Deemed exports | Date on which the GST return relating to the deemed exports is filed. |
| Export of services (supply completed before payment) | Date of receipt of payment in convertible foreign exchange or permitted Indian Rupees, where applicable. |
| Export of services (payment received in advance) | Date of issue of the tax invoice. |
| Unutilised Input Tax Credit (ITC) – Exports under LUT / Inverted Duty Structure | End of the financial year in which the refund claim arises. |
| Refund arising from a judgment, decree or order | Date on which the judgment, decree, order or direction is communicated. |
| Tax paid provisionally | Date of adjustment of tax following the final assessment. |
| Any other case | Date of payment of tax. |
Excess balance in the electronic cash ledger is the one exception where the two-year clock is not the practical constraint it is your money, sitting in your ledger, and you can claim it back.
How to check your GST refund status
You can track a refund with or without logging in.
After logging in:
- Go to Services → Refunds → Track Application Status.
- Select the financial year or enter the ARN.
- The portal shows the stage the claim has reached filed, acknowledged (RFD-02), deficiency memo issued (RFD-03), provisional refund issued (RFD-04), notice issued (RFD-08), sanctioned or rejected (RFD-06), payment advice issued (RFD-05) and the bank account credited.
Without logging in:
Go to the GST portal, choose Services → Track Application Status, select “Refund” and enter your ARN. For refunds of IGST paid on export of goods, the status is not in the GST portal at all it sits with Customs. Track it on the ICEGATE portal against your shipping bill, and check the response codes there if the amount has not arrived. If the status has not moved in 60 days, that is not just an inconvenience it is the trigger for interest under Section 56. Most businesses never claim it. It is claimable.
Why GST refund claims get rejected
From the pattern of deficiency memos and RFD-08 notices we see, the recurring causes are boringly consistent:
- GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the claim period are not filed, or are filed with mismatched figures IGST in Table 3.1(b) of GSTR-3B lower than Table 6A of GSTR-1 is a classic.
- Shipping bill, invoice or port-code mismatch between GSTR-1 and ICEGATE. Customs cannot match, so nothing is transmitted.
- The pre-application form was never filed, or was filed with an error that cannot be edited.
- Rule 89(4) or 89(5) is computed on the wrong turnover base adjusted total turnover in particular is routinely overstated.
- The ITC claimed in the refund does not tally with GSTR-2B, which since the introduction of the Invoice Management System is driven by what you accepted, rejected or ignored on the IMS dashboard. Invoices left unactioned are deemed accepted. That silently changes your eligible ITC and therefore your refund ceiling.
- Missing FIRC or BRC for service exports, or a missing SEZ endorsement.
- No CA certificate where the claim crosses ₹2 lakh.
- The RFD-08 notice was not replied to in 15 days.
- The claim was filed after the two-year window, because the relevant date was calculated from the invoice date rather than the statutory relevant date.
How GVC Audit handles your GST refund
Gupta Varundeep & Co. (GVC Audit) is a Gurgaon-based chartered accountant firm working with MSMEs, exporters, startups and manufacturers across India. We handle GST refunds end to end not just the filing, but everything that determines whether the filing survives.
| Stage | What We Do |
|---|---|
| Eligibility & Quantum Review | We determine which GST refund categories you are eligible to claim, identify the appropriate route (such as LUT or IGST for exporters), and calculate the correct refund amount after applying Rule 89(4) or Rule 89(5). Many businesses discover they have been claiming refunds under one category while overlooking another. |
| Pre-Filing Clean-Up | We reconcile GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-2B, and the Invoice Management System (IMS), resolve return mismatches before statutory deadlines expire, and correct shipping bill and invoice discrepancies before they affect Customs processing. |
| Refund Filing | We prepare and file the complete refund application, including the pre-application form, Form GST RFD-01, applicable statements, invoice-level uploads, CA certificate (where required), and bank account validation. |
| Provisional Refund Follow-Up | We monitor the RFD-02 acknowledgement and RFD-04 provisional sanction timelines, ensuring eligible taxpayers receive the 90% provisional refund under the applicable risk-based provisions. |
| Deficiency Memos & Notices | We respond to RFD-03 deficiency memos by filing a corrected application, prepare and submit replies in Form RFD-09 against RFD-08 show cause notices within the prescribed 15-day period, and represent clients during personal hearings. |
| Interest & Appeals | Where refunds are delayed beyond the statutory 60-day limit, we pursue interest under Section 56 of the CGST Act. If a refund is wrongly rejected, we handle appeals before the appropriate appellate authorities, including the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), wherever applicable. |
Frequently Asked Questions For GST refund
Who can claim a GST refund?
Exporters of goods and services, suppliers to SEZ units and developers, deemed export suppliers or recipients, manufacturers with accumulated ITC from an inverted duty structure, businesses that paid excess tax or paid under the wrong head, businesses with an unused electronic cash ledger balance, taxpayers who win a refund through an appeal or order, UN bodies and embassies, and in limited situations, such as a cancelled flat booking or insurance policy unregistered persons.
What is the time limit for claiming a GST refund?
Two years from the relevant date under Section 54(1). The relevant date changes with the refund type for goods exported by sea or air it is the date the vessel or aircraft leaves India; for unutilised ITC it is the end of the financial year in which the claim arises; for a refund arising from an order it is the date the order is communicated.
How long does a GST refund take?
The proper officer must pass the sanction or rejection order in Form RFD-06 within 60 days of receiving a complete application. Where the claim qualifies, 90% is sanctioned provisionally in Form RFD-04 within seven days of acknowledgement. Since 1 October 2025 that provisional sanction is driven by a system risk score, so a clean compliance record materially shortens the wait.
Do I get interest if my GST refund is delayed?
Yes. Under Section 56, interest runs at 6% per annum if the refund is not paid within 60 days of the application, and at 9% per annum where the refund arises from an order in appeal or adjudication and is still not paid within 60 days. Most businesses never claim it.
How do I check my GST refund status?
Log in to the GST portal and go to Services → Refunds → Track Application Status, then search by ARN or financial year. You can also track without logging in through Services → Track Application Status. For IGST paid on export of goods, the refund is processed by Customs track it on ICEGATE against your shipping bill.
Can I claim a GST refund on an inverted duty structure?
Yes, under the first proviso to Section 54(3), with the amount computed under the Rule 89(5) formula. Since 1 October 2025 these claims are also eligible for the 90% provisional refund, and the Finance Act, 2026 has amended Section 54(6) to confirm it. Note that the formula still allows credit only on input goods, not input services.
What is the minimum GST refund amount?
Section 54(14) bars refunds below ₹1,000. The Finance Act, 2026 removes that floor for exports of goods made on payment of tax, from a date to be notified. It continues to apply to all other refund categories.
What happens if my GST refund is rejected?
A rejection must be preceded by a show-cause notice in Form RFD-08, to which you reply in Form RFD-09 within 15 days. If the order in Form RFD-06 still goes against you, the rejected amount is re-credited to your ledger through Form PMT-03 and you can appeal. Do not let the 15-day reply window pass — it is the cheapest point at which to fix the claim.