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The GST Council has recommended a faster refund process that could let eligible businesses receive 90% of certain claimed refunds provisionally. The often-repeated “13 days” combines a proposed 10-day acknowledgment window with a separate three-day interval reported by BusinessToday; the official announcement does not set out that three-day deadline or promise every applicant payment within 13 days.
What the GST Council recommended
At its 57th meeting in New Delhi on 8 October 2026, the GST Council recommended amendments to section 54 of the CGST Act and related rules to introduce a two-phase, system-based refund process. These are recommendations, not confirmation that the amended rules are already in force or available on the GST portal. The Press Information Bureau release on the meeting describes the proposed steps.
Phase 1: automatic cash-ledger refunds and provisional refunds
Under the recommendation, the full excess balance in a taxpayer’s electronic cash ledger would be sanctioned automatically. For claims relating to zero-rated supplies and inverted duty structure, a system-based process would automatically provisionally sanction 90% of the claimed amount, subject to system identification and risk evaluation.
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The proposed period for issuing an acknowledgment or deficiency memo would fall from 15 days to 10 days. If neither document is issued within 10 days of an application, the application would be deemed acknowledged.
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Phase 2: full sanction for acknowledged zero-rated claims
For acknowledged zero-rated claims, Phase 2 would allow the system to sanction the full claim after adjusting pending dues, subject to system risk evaluation. The release does not describe the same Phase 2 full-sanction treatment for inverted-duty-structure claims.
Why reports say “13 days”
BusinessToday reported on 8 October 2026 that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described 90% of refunds as likely to be cleared within 13 days. Its account explains the figure as 10 days to acknowledgment followed by three days for provisional sanction of 90% of the refund. The official PIB release confirms the proposed 10-day acknowledgment period and 90% provisional sanction, but does not specify a three-day sanction period. Accordingly, “13 days” is a reported shorthand, not a timeline stated in the official release or an unconditional statutory guarantee.
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Who may qualify for a 90% provisional refund?
The proposal concerns zero-rated and inverted-duty-structure refund claims, but it does not mean every business or every claim automatically qualifies. The existing risk-based framework provides important context: the GST Council Secretariat newsletter reproducing CBIC Instruction No. 06/2025-GST, dated 3 October 2025, says system-identified low-risk zero-rated applications were to receive 90% provisionally after acknowledgment in FORM GST RFD-02. Applications not identified as low risk could undergo detailed scrutiny.
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That instruction also preserves statutory conditions and exclusions, including notified-person exclusions and a non-prosecution requirement. It allows scrutiny in exceptional cases where reasons are recorded and notes circumstances—such as certain unresolved issues with earlier refund claims—in which provisional sanction may not be appropriate. The Council’s 2026 recommendation proposes a broader system-based process, but the release does not remove the need to meet applicable conditions or establish that all applications will pass risk checks.
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Other proposed changes to GST refunds
The Council recommended additional changes intended to simplify refund applications and expand or clarify what can be claimed:
- Make FORM GST RFD-01 information system-readable and dispense with scanned-document uploads for zero-rated and inverted-duty-structure refund claims.
- Remove the current maximum-turnover restriction for zero-rated goods, expressed as 1.5 times the value of like goods supplied domestically.
- Clarify that the ₹1,000 minimum refund threshold applies to the total refund amount across CGST, SGST/UTGST and IGST.
- Allow accumulated input tax credit on capital goods for zero-rated supplies, and on input services and capital goods for inverted-duty-structure claims. The proposed capital-goods credit refund would be spread over 60 months and apply to credit availed on or after 1 April 2027.
What businesses should do now
Because the announcement presents these steps as recommendations for amendments, businesses should not assume that the proposed timelines or automated steps have already become operational. Check for subsequent legal amendments and GST portal instructions before changing cash-flow forecasts or filing procedures. For a current claim, continue to follow the applicable rules and portal process, and retain the records needed to support the refund and any response to scrutiny.
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