India's GST Council eases export refunds on plant and machinery
Big update for Indian exporters: the GST Council just made it easier to get tax refunds on plant and machinery.
The new rules expand what counts for refunds, cover duty drawback claimants, with the refund spread over five years.
This means about 38,700 taxpayers who claim refunds on exports, 13,100 of them carrying tax paid on plant and machinery which could not be recovered until now, are now set to benefit.
GST Council widens export definitions
The council also tweaked export definitions: deals with overseas branches now count as exports, as does job work in India for foreign clients (taxed by where the customer is).
Deliveries of goods sold to a foreign buyer but delivered, at the buyer's instruction, to a Special Economic Zone for storage or processing are included too, with payment received in foreign exchange or in rupees where permitted by the Reserve Bank of India.
Plus, refund applications will be acknowledged within 10 days (with 90% processed automatically after a risk check) and there's no more cap tying refunds to domestic prices, so more businesses can qualify.