Refund Rules under CGST Rules 2017

 

1. Appli­ca­tion for refund of tax, inter­est, penal­ty, fees or any oth­er — (1)Any per­son, except the per­sons cov­ered under noti­fi­ca­tion issued under sec­tion 55, claim­ing refund of any tax, inter­est, penal­ty, fees or any oth­er amount paid by him, oth­er than refund of inte­grat­ed tax paid on goods export­ed out of India, may file an appli­ca­tion elec­tron­i­cal­ly in FORM GST RFD-01 through the com­mon por­tal, either direct­ly or through a Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre noti­fied by the Commissioner:

Pro­vid­ed that any claim for refund relat­ing to bal­ance in the elec­tron­ic cash ledger in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 49 may be made through the return fur­nished for the rel­e­vant tax peri­od in FORM GSTR‑3 or FORM GSTR‑4 or FORM GSTR‑7, as the case may be:

Pro­vid­ed fur­ther that in respect of sup­plies to a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone unit or a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone devel­op­er, the appli­ca­tion for refund shall be filed by the –

• sup­pli­er of goods after such goods have been admit­ted in full in the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone for autho­rised oper­a­tions, as endorsed by the spec­i­fied offi­cer of the Zone;
• sup­pli­er of ser­vices along with such evi­dence regard­ing receipt of ser­vices for autho­rised oper­a­tions as endorsed by the spec­i­fied offi­cer of the Zone:

Pro­vid­ed also that in respect of sup­plies regard­ed as deemed exports, the appli­ca­tion shall be filed by the recip­i­ent of deemed export sup­plies:

Pro­vid­ed also that refund of any amount, after adjust­ing the tax payable by the appli­cant out of the advance tax deposit­ed by him under sec­tion 27 at the time of reg­is­tra­tion, shall be claimed in the last return required to be fur­nished by him.

• The appli­ca­tion under sub-rule (1) shall be accom­pa­nied by any of the fol­low­ing doc­u­men­tary evi­dences in Annex­ure 1 in Form GST RFD-01, as applic­a­ble, to estab­lish that a refund is due to the appli­cant, namely:- 
  • the ref­er­ence num­ber of the order and a copy of the order passed by the prop­er offi­cer or an appel­late author­i­ty or Appel­late Tri­bunal or court result­ing in such refund or ref­er­ence num­ber of the pay­ment of the amount spec­i­fied in sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 107 and sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 112 claimed as refund;
  • a state­ment con­tain­ing the num­ber and date of ship­ping bills or bills of export and the num­ber and the date of the rel­e­vant export invoic­es, in a case where the refund is on account of export of goods;
  • a state­ment con­tain­ing the num­ber and date of invoic­es and the rel­e­vant Bank Real­i­sa­tion Cer­tifi­cates or For­eign Inward Remit­tance Cer­tifi­cates, as the case may be, in a case where the refund is on account of the export of services;
  • a state­ment con­tain­ing the num­ber and date of invoic­es as pro­vid­ed in rule 46 along with the evi­dence regard­ing the endorse­ment spec­i­fied in the sec­ond pro­vi­so to

 

sub-rule (1) in the case of the sup­ply of goods made to a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone unit or a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone developer;

• a state­ment con­tain­ing the num­ber and date of invoic­es, the evi­dence regard­ing the endorse­ment spec­i­fied in the sec­ond pro­vi­so to sub-rule (1) and the details of pay­ment, along with the proof there­of, made by the recip­i­ent to the sup­pli­er for autho­rised oper­a­tions as defined under the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone Act, 2005, in a case where the refund is on account of sup­ply of ser­vices made to a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone unit or a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone developer;
• a dec­la­ra­tion to the effect that the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone unit or the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone devel­op­er has not availed the input tax cred­it of the tax paid by the sup­pli­er of goods or ser­vices or both, in a case where the refund is on account of sup­ply of goods or ser­vices made to a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone unit or a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone developer;
• a state­ment con­tain­ing the num­ber and date of invoic­es along with such oth­er evi­dence as may be noti­fied in this behalf, in a case where the refund is on account of deemed exports;
• a state­ment con­tain­ing the num­ber and the date of the invoic­es received and issued dur­ing a tax peri­od in a case where the claim per­tains to refund of any unutilised input tax cred­it under sub-sec­tion (3) of sec­tion 54 where the cred­it has accu­mu­lat­ed on account of the rate of tax on the inputs being high­er than the rate of tax on out­put sup­plies, oth­er than nil-rat­ed or ful­ly exempt supplies;
• the ref­er­ence num­ber of the final assess­ment order and a copy of the said order in a case where the refund aris­es on account of the final­i­sa­tion of pro­vi­sion­al assessment;
• a state­ment show­ing the details of trans­ac­tions con­sid­ered as intra-State sup­ply but which is sub­se­quent­ly held to be inter-State supply;
• a state­ment show­ing the details of the amount of claim on account of excess pay­ment of tax;
• a dec­la­ra­tion to the effect that the inci­dence of tax, inter­est or any oth­er amount claimed as refund has not been passed on to any oth­er per­son, in a case where the amount of refund claimed does not exceed two lakh rupees:

Pro­vid­ed that a dec­la­ra­tion is not required to be fur­nished in respect of the cas­es cov­ered under clause (a) or clause (b) or clause © or clause (d) or clause (f) of sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 54;

• a Cer­tifi­cate in Annex­ure 2 of FORM GST RFD-01 issued by a char­tered accoun­tant or a cost accoun­tant to the effect that the inci­dence of tax, inter­est or any oth­er amount claimed as refund has not been passed on to any oth­er per­son, in a case where the amount of refund claimed exceeds two lakh rupees:

Pro­vid­ed that a cer­tifi­cate is not required to be fur­nished in respect of cas­es cov­ered under clause (a) or clause (b) or clause © or clause (d) or clause (f) of sub- sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 54;

Expla­na­tion.– For the pur­pos­es of this rule-

 

• in case of refunds referred to in clause © of sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 54, the expres­sion “invoice” means invoice con­form­ing to the pro­vi­sions con­tained in sec­tion 31;
• where the amount of tax has been recov­ered from the recip­i­ent, it shall be deemed that the inci­dence of tax has been passed on to the ultimate
• Where the appli­ca­tion relates to refund of input tax cred­it, the elec­tron­ic cred­it ledger shall be deb­it­ed by the appli­cant by an amount equal to the refund so
• In the case of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of goods or ser­vices or both with­out pay­ment of tax under bond or let­ter of under­tak­ing in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (3) of sec­tion 16 of the Inte­grat­ed Goods and Ser­vices Tax Act, 2017 (13 of 2017), refund of input tax cred­it shall be grant­ed as per the fol­low­ing formula -

Refund Amount = (Turnover of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of goods + Turnover of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices) x Net ITC ÷Adjust­ed Total Turnover

 

Where,-

• “Refund amount” means the max­i­mum refund that is admissible;
• “Net ITC” means input tax cred­it availed on inputs and input ser­vices dur­ing the rel­e­vant period;
• “Turnover of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of goods” means the val­ue of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of goods made dur­ing the rel­e­vant peri­od with­out pay­ment of tax under bond or let­ter of undertaking;
• “Turnover of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices” means the val­ue of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices made with­out pay­ment of tax under bond or let­ter of under­tak­ing, cal­cu­lat­ed in the fol­low­ing man­ner, namely:-

Zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices is the aggre­gate of the pay­ments received dur­ing the rel­e­vant peri­od for zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices and zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices where sup­ply has been com­plet­ed for which pay­ment had been received in advance in any peri­od pri­or to the rel­e­vant peri­od reduced by advances received for zero-rat­ed sup­ply of ser­vices for which the sup­ply of ser­vices has not been com­plet­ed dur­ing the rel­e­vant period;

• “Adjust­ed Total turnover” means the turnover in a State or a Union ter­ri­to­ry, as defined under sub-sec­tion (112) of sec­tion 2, exclud­ing the val­ue of exempt sup­plies oth­er than zero-rat­ed sup­plies, dur­ing the rel­e­vant period;
• “Rel­e­vant peri­od” means the peri­od for which the claim has been
• In the case of refund on account of invert­ed duty struc­ture, refund of input tax cred­it shall be grant­ed as per the fol­low­ing formula -

Max­i­mum Refund Amount = {(Turnover of invert­ed rat­ed sup­ply of goods) x Net ITC ÷ Adjust­ed Total Turnover} — tax payable on such invert­ed rat­ed sup­ply of goods

 

Expla­na­tion.- For the pur­pos­es of this sub rule, the expres­sions “Net ITC” and “Adjust­ed Total turnover” shall have the same mean­ings as assigned to them in sub-rule (4).

 

2. - (1) Where the appli­ca­tion relates to a claim for refund from the elec­tron­ic cash ledger, an acknowl­edge­ment in FORM GST RFD-02 shall be made avail­able to the appli­cant through the com­mon por­tal elec­tron­i­cal­ly, clear­ly indi­cat­ing the date of fil­ing of the claim for refund and the time peri­od spec­i­fied in sub-sec­tion (7) of sec­tion 54 shall be count­ed from such date of filing.

• The appli­ca­tion for refund, oth­er than claim for refund from elec­tron­ic cash ledger, shall be for­ward­ed to the prop­er offi­cer who shall, with­in a peri­od of fif­teen days of fil­ing of the said appli­ca­tion, scru­ti­nize the appli­ca­tion for its com­plete­ness and where the appli­ca­tion is found to be com­plete in terms of sub-rule (2), (3) and (4) of rule 89, an acknowl­edge­ment in FORM GST RFD-02 shall be made avail­able to the appli­cant through the com­mon por­tal elec­tron­i­cal­ly, clear­ly indi­cat­ing the date of fil­ing of the claim for refund and the time peri­od spec­i­fied in sub-sec­tion (7) of sec­tion 54 shall be count­ed from such date of
• Where any defi­cien­cies are noticed, the prop­er offi­cer shall com­mu­ni­cate the defi­cien­cies to the appli­cant in FORM GST RFD-03 through the com­mon por­tal elec­tron­i­cal­ly, requir­ing him to file a fresh refund appli­ca­tion after rec­ti­fi­ca­tion of such deficiencies.
• Where defi­cien­cies have been com­mu­ni­cat­ed in FORM GST RFD-03 under the State Goods and Ser­vice Tax Rules, 2017, the same shall also deemed to have been com­mu­ni­cat­ed under this rule along with the defi­cien­cies com­mu­ni­cat­ed under sub-rule (3).

3. Grant of pro­vi­sion­al refund.-(1) The pro­vi­sion­al refund in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 54 shall be grant­ed sub­ject to the con­di­tion that the per­son claim­ing refund has, dur­ing any peri­od of five years imme­di­ate­ly pre­ced­ing the tax peri­od to which the claim for refund relates, not been pros­e­cut­ed for any offence under the Act or under an exist­ing law where the amount of tax evad­ed exceeds two hun­dred and fifty lakh

(2) The prop­er offi­cer, after scruti­ny of the claim and the evi­dence sub­mit­ted in sup­port there­of and on being pri­ma facie sat­is­fied that the amount claimed as refund under   sub-rule

(1) is due to the appli­cant in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 54, shall make an order in FORM GST RFD-04, sanc­tion­ing the amount of refund due to the said appli­cant on a pro­vi­sion­al basis with­in a peri­od not exceed­ing sev­en days from the date of the acknowl­edge­ment under sub-rule (1) or sub-rule (2) of rule 90.

(3)  The prop­er offi­cer shall issue a pay­ment advice in FORM GST RFD-05 for the   amount sanc­tioned under sub-rule (2) and the same shall be elec­tron­i­cal­ly cred­it­ed to any of the bank accounts of the appli­cant men­tioned in his reg­is­tra­tion par­tic­u­lars and as spec­i­fied in the appli­ca­tion for refund.

 

4. Order sanc­tion­ing refund.- (1) Where, upon exam­i­na­tion of the appli­ca­tion, the prop­er offi­cer is sat­is­fied that a refund under sub-sec­tion (5) of sec­tion 54 is due and payable to the appli­cant, he shall make an order in FORM GST RFD-06 sanc­tion­ing the amount of refund to which the appli­cant is enti­tled, men­tion­ing there­in the amount, if any, refund­ed to him on a pro­vi­sion­al basis under sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 54, amount adjust­ed against any out­stand­ing demand under the Act or under any exist­ing law and the bal­ance amount refundable:

Pro­vid­ed that in cas­es where the amount of refund is com­plete­ly adjust­ed against any out­stand­ing demand under the Act or under any exist­ing law, an order giv­ing details of the adjust­ment shall be issued in Part A of FORM GST RFD-07.

• Where the prop­er offi­cer or the Com­mis­sion­er is of the opin­ion that the amount of refund is liable to be with­held under the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (10) or, as the case may be, sub-sec­tion (11) of sec­tion 54, he shall pass an order in Part B of FORM GST RFD-07 inform­ing him the rea­sons for with­hold­ing of such
• Where the prop­er offi­cer is sat­is­fied, for rea­sons to be record­ed in writ­ing, that the whole or any part of the amount claimed as refund is not admis­si­ble or is not payable to the appli­cant, he shall issue a notice in FORM GST RFD-08 to the appli­cant, requir­ing him to fur­nish a reply in FORM GST RFD-09 with­in a peri­od of fif­teen days of the receipt of such notice and after con­sid­er­ing the reply, make an order in FORM GST RFD-06 sanc­tion­ing the amount of refund in whole or part, or reject­ing the said refund claim and the said order shall be made avail­able to the appli­cant elec­tron­i­cal­ly and the pro­vi­sions of sub-rule (1) shall, mutatis mutan­dis, apply to the extent refund is allowed:

Pro­vid­ed that no appli­ca­tion for refund shall be reject­ed with­out giv­ing the appli­cant an oppor­tu­ni­ty of being heard.

• Where the prop­er offi­cer is sat­is­fied that the amount refund­able under sub-rule (1) or sub-rule (2) is payable to the appli­cant under sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 54, he shall make an order in FORM GST RFD-06 and issue a pay­ment advice in FORM GST RFD-05 for the amount of refund and the same shall be elec­tron­i­cal­ly cred­it­ed to any of the bank accounts of the appli­cant men­tioned in his reg­is­tra­tion par­tic­u­lars and as spec­i­fied in the appli­ca­tion for refund.
• Where the prop­er offi­cer is sat­is­fied that the amount refund­able under sub-rule (1) or sub-rule (2) is not payable to the appli­cant under sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 54, he shall make an order in FORM GST RFD-06 and issue an advice in FORM GST RFD-05, for the amount of refund to be cred­it­ed to the Con­sumer Welfare

5. Cred­it of the amount of reject­ed refund claim.- (1) Where any defi­cien­cies have been com­mu­ni­cat­ed under sub-rule (3) of rule 90, the amount deb­it­ed under sub-rule (3) of rule 89 shall be re-cred­it­ed to the elec­tron­ic credit

(2)   Where any amount claimed as refund is reject­ed under rule 92, either ful­ly or part­ly,   the amount deb­it­ed, to the extent of rejec­tion, shall be re-cred­it­ed to the elec­tron­ic cred­it ledger by an order made in FORM GST PMT-03.

Expla­na­tion.– For the pur­pos­es of this rule, a refund shall be deemed to be reject­ed, if the appeal is final­ly reject­ed or if the claimant gives an under­tak­ing in writ­ing to the prop­er offi­cer that he shall not file an appeal.

 

6. Order sanc­tion­ing inter­est on delayed refunds.- Where any inter­est is due and payable to the appli­cant under sec­tion 56, the prop­er offi­cer shall make an order along with a pay­ment advice in FORM GST RFD-05, spec­i­fy­ing there­in the amount of refund which is delayed, the peri­od of delay for which inter­est is payable and the amount of inter­est payable, and such amount of inter­est shall be elec­tron­i­cal­ly cred­it­ed to any of the bank accounts of the appli­cant men­tioned in his reg­is­tra­tion par­tic­u­lars and as spec­i­fied in the appli­ca­tion for refund.
7. Refund of tax to cer­tain — (1) Any per­son eli­gi­ble to claim refund of tax paid by him on his inward sup­plies as per noti­fi­ca­tion issued sec­tion 55 shall apply for refund in FORM GST RFD-10 once in every quar­ter, elec­tron­i­cal­ly on the com­mon por­tal, either direct­ly or through a Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre noti­fied by the Com­mis­sion­er, along with a state­ment of the inward sup­plies of goods or ser­vices or both in FORM GSTR-11, pre­pared on the basis of the state­ment of the out­ward sup­plies fur­nished by the cor­re­spond­ing sup­pli­ers in FORM GSTR‑1.

• An acknowl­edge­ment for the receipt of the appli­ca­tion for refund shall be issued in FORM GST RFD-02.
• The refund of tax paid by the appli­cant shall be avail­able if- 
  • the inward sup­plies of goods or ser­vices or both were received from a reg­is­tered per­son against a tax invoice and the price of the sup­ply cov­ered under a sin­gle tax invoice exceeds five thou­sand rupees, exclud­ing tax paid, if any;
  • name and Goods and Ser­vices Tax Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Num­ber or Unique Iden­ti­ty Num­ber of the appli­cant is men­tioned in the tax invoice; and
  • such oth­er restric­tions or con­di­tions as may be spec­i­fied in the noti­fi­ca­tion are satisfied.
• The pro­vi­sions of rule 92 shall, mutatis mutan­dis, apply for the sanc­tion and pay­ment of refund under this
• Where an express pro­vi­sion in a treaty or oth­er inter­na­tion­al agree­ment, to which the Pres­i­dent or the Gov­ern­ment of India is a par­ty, is incon­sis­tent with the pro­vi­sions of this Chap­ter, such treaty or inter­na­tion­al agree­ment shall

8. Refund of inte­grat­ed tax paid on goods export­ed out of -(1) The ship­ping bill filed by an exporter shall be deemed to be an appli­ca­tion for refund of inte­grat­ed tax paid on the goods export­ed out of India and such appli­ca­tion shall be deemed to have been filed only when:- 
   • the per­son in charge of the con­veyance car­ry­ing the export goods duly files an export man­i­fest or an export report cov­er­ing the num­ber and the date of ship­ping bills or bills of export; and
   • the appli­cant has fur­nished a valid return in FORM GSTR‑3 or FORM GSTR- 3B, as the case may be;

• The details of the rel­e­vant export invoic­es con­tained in FORM GSTR‑1 shall be trans­mit­ted elec­tron­i­cal­ly by the com­mon por­tal to the sys­tem des­ig­nat­ed by the Cus­toms and the said sys­tem shall elec­tron­i­cal­ly trans­mit to the com­mon por­tal, a con­fir­ma­tion that the goods cov­ered by the said invoic­es have been export­ed out of

 

• Upon the receipt of the infor­ma­tion regard­ing the fur­nish­ing of a valid return in FORM GSTR‑3 or FORM GSTR-3B, as the case may be from the com­mon por­tal, the sys­tem des­ig­nat­ed by the Cus­toms shall process the claim for refund and an amount equal to the inte­grat­ed tax paid in respect of each ship­ping bill or bill of export shall be elec­tron­i­cal­ly cred­it­ed to the bank account of the appli­cant men­tioned in his reg­is­tra­tion par­tic­u­lars and as inti­mat­ed to the Cus­toms authorities.
• The claim for refund shall be with­held where,- 
  • a request has been received from the juris­dic­tion­al Com­mis­sion­er of cen­tral tax, State tax or Union ter­ri­to­ry tax to with­hold the pay­ment of refund due to the per­son claim­ing refund in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (10) or sub-section

(11) of sec­tion 54; or

• the prop­er offi­cer of Cus­toms deter­mines that the goods were export­ed in vio­la­tion of the pro­vi­sions of the Cus­toms Act, 1962.

• Where refund is with­held in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of clause (a) of sub-rule (4), the prop­er offi­cer of inte­grat­ed tax at the Cus­toms sta­tion shall inti­mate the appli­cant and the juris­dic­tion­al Com­mis­sion­er of cen­tral tax, State tax or Union ter­ri­to­ry tax, as the case may be, and a copy of such inti­ma­tion shall be trans­mit­ted to the common
• Upon trans­mis­sion of the inti­ma­tion under sub-rule (5), the prop­er offi­cer of cen­tral tax or State tax or Union ter­ri­to­ry tax, as the case may be, shall pass an order in Part B of FORM GST RFD-07.
• Where the appli­cant becomes enti­tled to refund of the amount with­held under clause (a) of sub-rule (4), the con­cerned juris­dic­tion­al offi­cer of cen­tral tax, State tax or Union ter­ri­to­ry tax, as the case may be, shall pro­ceed to refund the amount after pass­ing an order in FORM GST RFD-06.
• The Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment may pay refund of the inte­grat­ed tax to the Gov­ern­ment of Bhutan on the exports to Bhutan for such class of goods as may be noti­fied in this behalf and where such refund is paid to the Gov­ern­ment of Bhutan, the exporter shall not be paid any refund of the integrated

96A. Refund of inte­grat­ed tax paid on export of goods or ser­vices under bond or Let­ter of Under­tak­ing.- (1) Any reg­is­tered per­son avail­ing the option to sup­ply goods or ser­vices for export with­out pay­ment of inte­grat­ed tax shall fur­nish, pri­or to export, a bond or a Let­ter of Under­tak­ing in FORM GST RFD-11 to the juris­dic­tion­al Com­mis­sion­er, bind­ing him­self to pay the tax due along with the inter­est spec­i­fied under sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 50 with­in a peri­od of —

• fif­teen days after the expiry of three months from the date of issue of the invoice for export, if the goods are not export­ed out of India; or
• 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

• The details of the export invoic­es con­tained in FORM GSTR‑1 fur­nished on the com­mon por­tal shall be elec­tron­i­cal­ly trans­mit­ted to the sys­tem des­ig­nat­ed by Cus­toms and a

 

con­fir­ma­tion that the goods cov­ered by the said invoic­es have been export­ed out of India shall be elec­tron­i­cal­ly trans­mit­ted to the com­mon por­tal from the said system.

• Where the goods are not export­ed with­in the time spec­i­fied in sub-rule (1) and the reg­is­tered per­son fails to pay the amount men­tioned in the said sub-rule, the export as allowed under bond or Let­ter of Under­tak­ing shall be with­drawn forth­with and the said amount shall be recov­ered from the reg­is­tered per­son in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of section
• The export as allowed under bond or Let­ter of Under­tak­ing with­drawn in terms of sub- rule (3) shall be restored imme­di­ate­ly when the reg­is­tered per­son pays the amount
• The Board, by way of noti­fi­ca­tion, may spec­i­fy the con­di­tions and safe­guards under which a Let­ter of Under­tak­ing may be fur­nished in place of a
• The pro­vi­sions of sub rule (1) shall apply, mutatis mutan­dis, in respect of zero-rat­ed sup­ply of goods or ser­vices or both to a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone devel­op­er or a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone unit with­out pay­ment of integrated ”;

9. Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund.- (1) All cred­its to the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund shall be made under sub-rule (5) of rule

• Any amount, hav­ing been cred­it­ed to the Fund, ordered or direct­ed as payable to any claimant by orders of the prop­er offi­cer, appel­late author­i­ty or Appel­late Tri­bunal or court, shall be paid from the
• Any util­i­sa­tion of amount from the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund under sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 58 shall be made by deb­it­ing the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund account and cred­it­ing the account to which the amount is trans­ferred for utilisation.
• The Gov­ern­ment shall, by an order, con­sti­tute a Stand­ing Com­mit­tee with a Chair­man, a Vice-Chair­man, a Mem­ber Sec­re­tary and such oth­er Mem­bers as it may deem fit and the Com­mit­tee shall make rec­om­men­da­tions for prop­er util­i­sa­tion of the mon­ey cred­it­ed to the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund for wel­fare of the
• The Com­mit­tee shall meet as and when nec­es­sary, but not less than once in three
• Any agency or organ­i­sa­tion engaged in con­sumer wel­fare activ­i­ties for a peri­od of three years reg­is­tered under the pro­vi­sions of the Com­pa­nies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) or under any oth­er law for the time being in force, includ­ing vil­lage or man­dal or sami­ti lev­el co-oper­a­tives of con­sumers espe­cial­ly Women, Sched­uled Castes and Sched­uled Tribes, or any indus­try as defined in the Indus­tri­al Dis­putes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947) rec­om­mend­ed by the Bureau of Indi­an Stan­dards to be engaged for a peri­od of five years in viable and use­ful research activ­i­ty which has made, or is like­ly to make, sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion in for­mu­la­tion of stan­dard mark of the prod­ucts of mass con­sump­tion, the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment or the State Gov­ern­ment may make an appli­ca­tion for a grant from the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund:

Pro­vid­ed that a con­sumer may make appli­ca­tion for reim­burse­ment of legal expens­es incurred by him as a com­plainant in a con­sumer dis­pute, after its final adjudication.

• All appli­ca­tions for grant from the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund shall be made by the appli­cant Mem­ber Sec­re­tary, but the Com­mit­tee shall not con­sid­er an appli­ca­tion, unless it has been inquired into in mate­r­i­al details and rec­om­mend­ed for con­sid­er­a­tion accord­ing­ly, by the Member

 

• The Com­mit­tee shall have powers — 
  1. to require any appli­cant to pro­duce before it, or before a duly autho­rised Offi­cer of the Gov­ern­ment such books, accounts, doc­u­ments, instru­ments, or com­modi­ties in cus­tody and con­trol of the appli­cant, as may be nec­es­sary for prop­er eval­u­a­tion of the application;
  2. to require any appli­cant to allow entry and inspec­tion of any premis­es, from which activ­i­ties claimed to be for the wel­fare of con­sumers are stat­ed to be car­ried on, to a duly autho­rised offi­cer of the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment or, as the case may be, State Government;
  3. to get the accounts of the appli­cants audit­ed, for ensur­ing prop­er util­i­sa­tion of the grant;
  4. to require any appli­cant, in case of any default, or sup­pres­sion of mate­r­i­al infor­ma­tion on his part, to refund in lump-sum, the sanc­tioned grant to the Com­mit­tee, and to be sub­ject to pros­e­cu­tion under the Act;
  5. to recov­er any sum due from any appli­cant in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of the Act;
  6. to require any appli­cant, or class of appli­cants to sub­mit a peri­od­i­cal report, indi­cat­ing prop­er util­i­sa­tion of the grant;
  7. to reject an appli­ca­tion placed before it on account of fac­tu­al incon­sis­ten­cy, or inac­cu­ra­cy in mate­r­i­al particulars;
  8. to rec­om­mend min­i­mum finan­cial assis­tance, by way of grant to an appli­cant, hav­ing regard to his finan­cial sta­tus, and impor­tance and util­i­ty of nature of activ­i­ty under pur­suit, after ensur­ing that the finan­cial assis­tance pro­vid­ed shall not be misutilised;
  9. to iden­ti­fy ben­e­fi­cial and safe sec­tors, where invest­ments out of Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund may be made and make rec­om­men­da­tions, accordingly;
  10. to relax the con­di­tions required for the peri­od of engage­ment in con­sumer wel­fare activ­i­ties of an applicant;
  11. to make guide­lines for the man­age­ment, admin­is­tra­tion and audit of the Con­sumer Welfare

The Cen­tral Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Coun­cil and the Bureau of Indi­an Stan­dards shall rec­om­mend to the Goods and Ser­vices Tax Coun­cil, the broad guide­lines for con­sid­er­ing the projects or pro­pos­als for the pur­pose of incur­ring expen­di­ture from the Con­sumer Wel­fare Fund.