Refunds under the GST Law

Refunds under tax enactments arise as a matter of Government policy or pursuant to excess payments. The legislative source of such refunds plays a pivotal role in deciding the entitlement criteria, process, limitation, restriction, etc.; and hence should not be lost sight of, while studying refund provisions. This article is aimed at examining the structural aspects of refunds under GST law.

I. INTRODUCTION : LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Refund entitlements are present across the entire GST law – a simple tabulation summarises this array¹. While the provisions are scattered, section 54 appears to be the parent provision for processing GST refunds. Hence, the refund entitlements can be basketed into those which are: (a) specifically mapped to S. 54 for conditions, restrictions, etc (b) not specifically mapped to S. 54.

1. The list excludes refund entitlements under Central / State Industrial or
    Budgetary policies which would be governed by the respective 
   notifications issued by the administering Ministry.

On a perusal of the various refund provisions, it is noteworthy that most of the refund cl