DGGI, DRI conduct pan-India search against exporters claiming bogus IGST refunds

The joint operation by the DGGI and DRI was a first of its kind in the history of CBIC which involved about 1200 officers from both the agencies.

NEW DELHI: In the biggest ever joint operation by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) against exporters who were claiming refund of IGST fraudulently, pan-India searches were carried out at 336 different locations across the country on September 11.

The joint operation covered entities in the states of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.

The joint operation of the two premier agencies of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) was a first of its kind in the history of CBIC which involved about 1200 officers from both the agencies.

With the government detecting fraudulent refund claims by exporters, the CBIC had asked customs and GST officers to closely verify the IGST refund claims before sanctioning them.

The CBIC also asked director-general (systems) to identify a list of "risky exporters" and share it with customs and GST officers, so that an alert can be generated for 100 per cent examination of their export consignments.

Currently, Integrated GST (IGST) refunds are issued to exporters automatically based on shipping bills filed with customs and goods and services tax returns filed with central tax authorities. The refunds are issued within a fortnight days of filing of returns without any manual intervention.

Under GST, every person making a claim of refund on account of 'zero-rated' supplies has two options. Either he can export without payment of integrated tax under bond/ letter of undertaking and claim a refund of accumulated ITC or he may export on payment of integrated tax and claim refund thereof.

Currently, the facility of automatic refund is available only for those exporters who have paid IGST while exporting goods. .