Doing Business Is Now Easier As Finance Ministry Simplifies GST Refund Claim Process 

The Union Finance Ministry, in a bid to further streamline the compliance procedures under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), has done away with the need for submitting all the purchase invoices in a month. Instead, businesses could supply a copy of the ‘GSTR-2A’ form to the concerned tax authorities. The ‘GSTR-2A’ form is an automated purchase return which is generated by the system pursuant to a transaction between business and supplier.

The GST Policy wing of the Finance Ministry in a release said, “The proper officer shall rely upon form GSTR-2A as an evidence of the account of the supply by the corresponding supplier in relation to which input tax credit has been availed by the claimant”.

It was also clarified that in situations where the GSTR-2A did not have all the details of the invoices respecting availment of input tax credit for various reasons including non-filing of supplier form GSTR-1, the officer concerned could call for hard copies of invoices. However, where details of an invoice were available on GSTR-2A, the officers concerned could not insist upon production of hard copies of the same.

It is expected that this measure of the Finance Ministry would contribute to easing the compliance burden for businesses and enable a smoother operation of the GST regime.