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period as may be allowed by the Commissioner from the date of issue of the invoice for
export, if the goods are not exported out of India. The time period in case of services is
fifteen days after the expiry of one year or such further period as may be allowed by the
Commissioner from the date of issue of the invoice for export, if the payment of such
services is not received by the exporter in convertible foreign exchange.
5.1 It has been reported that the exporters have been asked to pay integrated tax where the
goods have been exported but not within three months from the date of the issue of the
invoice for export. In this regard, it is emphasised that exports have been zero rated under the
Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (IGST Act) and as long as goods have actually
been exported even after a period of three months, payment of integrated tax first and
claiming refund at a subsequent date should not be insisted upon. In such cases, the
jurisdictional Commissioner may consider granting extension of time limit for export as
provided in the said sub-rule on post facto basis keeping in view the facts and circumstances
of each case. The same principle should be followed in case of export of services.
6. Deficiency memo: It may be noted that if the application for refund is complete in
terms of sub-rule (2), (3) and (4) of rule 89 of the CGST Rules, an acknowledgement in
FORM GST RFD-02 should be issued. Rule 90 (3) of the CGST Rules provides for
communication in FORM GST RFD-03 (deficiency memo) where deficiencies are noticed.
The said sub-rule also provides that once the deficiency memo has been issued, the claimant
is required to file a fresh refund application after the rectification of the deficiencies.
6.1. In this connection, a clarification has been sought whether with respect to a refund
claim, deficiency memo can be issued more than once. In this regard rule 90 of the CGST
Rules may be referred to, wherein it has been clearly stated that once an applicant has been
communicated the deficiencies in respect of a particular application, the applicant shall
furnish a fresh refund application after rectification of such deficiencies. It is therefore,
clarified that there can be only one deficiency memo for one refund application and once
such a memo has been issued, the applicant is required to file a fresh refund application,
manually in FORM GST RFD-01A. This fresh application would be accompanied with the
original ARN, debit entry number generated originally and a hard copy of the refund
application filed online earlier. It is further clarified that once an application has been
submitted afresh, pursuant to a deficiency memo, the proper officer will not serve another
deficiency memo with respect to the application for the same period, unless the deficiencies
pointed out in the original memo remain unrectified, either wholly or partly, or any other
substantive deficiency is noticed subsequently.