The GST portal has introduced an important procedural change for refund applicants filing claims of unutilised ITC. As per the updated refund utility, Annexure-B is now required to be prepared through the offline utility and uploaded in JSON format.
The updated utility seeks several additional invoice-level particulars beyond the Annexure-B format earlier referred to in Circular No. 135/05/2020-GST dated 31.03.2020, including type of inward supply, type of document, total ITC, ITC blocked under Section 17(5), eligible ITC, ineligible ITC and GSTR-2B return period.
This indicates a move towards system-based validation of refund invoices with GSTR-2B, enabling the portal to verify whether the invoices forming part of the refund claim are duly reflected in the applicant’s auto-drafted ITC statement.
Taxpayers filing refund applications under FORM GST RFD-01 are advised to undertake detailed reconciliation of purchase register, ITC ledger, GSTR-2B and refund working before uploading Annexure-B. Particular care should be taken to correctly identify the GSTR-2B month, eligibility of ITC, blocked credit under Section 17(5) and reversals under applicable GST provisions.
This update is expected to improve invoice-level verification and reduce manual scrutiny, but it will also substantially increase the documentation and reconciliation burden on exporters, SEZ suppliers and other taxpayers claiming refund of accumulated ITC.
Reference: Circular No. 135/05/2020-GST dated 31.03.2020; Circular No. 170/02/2022-GST dated 06.07.2022; Section 54 of the CGST Act, 2017; Rule 89 of the CGST Rules, 2017.
Compliance takeaway
Refund filers should not treat Annexure-B as a simple invoice annexure anymore. It is now becoming a reconciliation-based data upload where every invoice may need to be mapped with:
Books → GSTR-2B → ITC eligibility → blocked/ineligible ITC → refund claim amount.
This is likely to make refund preparation more time-consuming, but also more system-driven and less dependent on manual officer-level verification.
Source from: https://a2ztaxcorp.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/GSTN-07.05.2026.pdf
