Order Passed for GST Refund

After the issue of Provisional Refund (RFD-04) of GST on receipt of Refund Application, a GST Officer has to investigate and examine refund claim. The GST Officer issue one of the following order after investigation.

Latest Update

05th July 2022
Taxpayers can exclude the COVID pandemic period (1st March 2020 and 28th February 2022) while calculating the time limit for filing GST refund applications under Sections 54 or 55 of the CGST Act.

1st February 2022
Budget 2022 update-
1. Section 54 is amended to provide that refund claim of any balance in the electronic cash ledger can be made in a particular form and manner prescribed.
2. The time limit to claim refund by UN agencies is now two years from last day of quarter when supply was received instead of six months.
3. The restriction to refund taxpayers for tax defaults, that earlier applied to unutilised ITC refund, is now extended to other types of refunds.
4. The relevant date to file refund claim application for supplies to SEZ is clarified in new sub-clause (ba) of clause (2) of the explanation.

1st May 2021
Where the time limit to pass orders for rejecting any refund claim fully or partly falls between 15th April 2021 and 30th May 2021, it is extended. The extended time limit shall be later of two dates:
(1) 15 days after reply to notice OR
(2) 31st May 2021

RFD-06: GST refund order

A GST Officer has to process the refund application within 60 days from the date of submission of application. If the amount of refund is admissible an order will be issued in RFD-06 electronically. The Refund Sanction Order contains the following details:

• Amount of refund claimed: This is the total refund claimed by you while applying for the refund.
• Refund sanctioned on provisional basis: The amount of refund sanctioned in RFD-04 provisionally is specified in this section
• Refund amount inadmissible: Any amount of refund that is not allowable as per law is specified here along with the reason.
• Gross amount to be paid: This is the difference between -Refund claimed (minus) Provisional refund (minus) Inadmissible refund
• Amount adjusted against outstanding demand: If there is any outstanding demand amount to be paid to the GST authorities it will be reduced from the gross refund payable to you.
• Net amount to be paid: Any balance refund after reducing outstanding demand against gross refund is paid out.

The refund is processed by issuing RFD-05 (payment advice)  

RFD-07: Complete Adjustment/ Withholding of Refund

RFD-07 is issued by the GST officer in cases where refund claimed by the applicant is fully adjusted against any outstanding demands (PART A) or refund is withheld due to certain reasons (PART B). The order for complete adjustment/ withholding of refund contains the following details:

Order for Complete Adjustment of Sanctioned Refund (Part A)

• Amount of Refund claimed: Total refund claimed by you in refund application.
• Net Refund Sanctioned on Provisional Basis: the amount of provisional refund is specified here. This is usually 90% of refund claimed by you.
• Refund amount inadmissible rejected: Amount of refund that is not allowed and rejected along with the reason for rejection of refund.
• Refund admissible: This is the difference between – Refund claimed (minus) Provisional refund (minus) Inadmissible refund.
• Refund adjusted against outstanding demand: The details of the outstanding demand that you have not paid along with order number and date will be provided.
• Balance amount of refund: The balance refund payable is nil in case of this order since the entire refund is adjusted against outstanding demand.

Order for Withholding the Refund (Part B)

• Amount of Refund Sanctioned
• Amount of Refund Withheld
• Amount of Refund Allowed All these details along with reason for withholding refund will be provided in RFD-07

RFD-08: Whole or Part of Refund is Inadmissible

After appropriate processing, if a part or whole of the refund is inadmissible the GST Officer will issue RFD-08. RFD-08 is basically issued on the rejection of the application of refund. RFD-08 provides the reason for which the refund is proposed to be rejected. The notice also required the taxpayer to respond to it. The taxpayer has to provide reasons as to why the refund should not be rejected within 15 days or receipt of the notice. Here is how the notice looks like:

RFD-09: Reply to notice

A taxpayer who receives the notice in RFD-08 has to reply to it in RFD-09 along with the documents as requested in the notice. When no refund is admissible the GST Officer directs the refund applicant to provide a reply in RFD-09. The reply to the notice contains the following details:

• Reference No. of Notice Date of issue
• GSTIN/ UIN
• Name of business
• Trade name
• Reply to the notice: The taxpayer has to provide the reasons by which he is eligible for issue of refund.
• List of documents uploaded: The documents as required in RFD-08 has to be uploaded while submitting RFD-09.

On receipt of the reply in RFD-09, the GST Officer has to assess whether refund should be issued or not.  

RFD-05: Payment Advice

The net amount of refund along with interest if (any) is issued by the GST Officer in RFD-05 and the refund is credited to the taxpayers bank account electronically. RFD-05 is also issued when an order is made under RFD-06  and the entire refund is to be credited to Consumer Welfare Fund.