The 26 th meeting meeting of the GST Council held Saturday decided to extend the available tax exemptions on imported goods for a further 6 months beyond March 31.

As per the decision, exporters presently availing various export promotion schemes can now continue to avail such exemptions on their imports up to October 1, , by which time an e-Wallet scheme is expected to be in place to continue the benefits in future.

In a related development which would benefit the exporters, the Council reviewed the progress in grant of refunds to exports of both IGST and Input Tax Credit. 

The Council appreciated that the pace of grant of IGST refund has picked up.

Thereafter, the Council directed GSTN to expeditiously forward the balance refund claims to the Customs/Central GST/State GST authorities, as the case may be, for their immediate sanction and disbursal.

In its meeting held on October last year the Council had noted that exporters are experiencing difficulties of cash blockage on account of having to upfront pay GST / IGST on the inputs, raw materials etc. / finished goods imported / procured for purposes of exports.