The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has simplified GST refund conditions, providing taxpayers the option to withdraw their claim. It has revised GST rules to exclude the time period from the date of filing a refund application to the date of the officer's issuance of a deficiency letter from the overall time limit for filing a refund application.

Dhruva Advisors LLP Niraj Bagri said many GST refund applications were returned on the grounds of deficiency seeking the company to file a fresh application. The filing of a rectified refund application was treated as a new refund application.

"In several instances, though the original refund application was filed within the time limit of 2 years, the department has been considering the date of rectified refund application as the relevant date resulting in rejections on the ground of breach of time limits.

"CBIC has put rest to this controversy, by amending the rule, and providing that the time period from the date of filing of original refund application till the time the deficiency letter is issued, will be excluded for determining the two-year period," Bagri said.