Asked in the Lok Sabha about delayed GST refunds to exporters and small businesses, the Ministry of Finance gave the refund claims pending with central tax formations at the end of each of the last three financial years, state by state, and the interest it paid on late refunds.
On 31 March 2024, 1,592 claims worth Rs 695.84 crore had been pending for more than 90 days. On 31 March 2026 there were 110, worth Rs 64.10 crore: 93% fewer claims and 91% less money.
Half of what is left is in one state
Andhra Pradesh’s 20 claims hold Rs 32.37 crore, 50.5% of the money pending more than 90 days with central tax formations in India. A year earlier its 77 claims held Rs 269.86 crore, 48.2% of the national figure. Between March 2024 and March 2025 the state’s amount rose, from Rs 254.56 crore to Rs 269.86 crore, while the rest of India’s fell from Rs 441.28 crore to Rs 289.64 crore.
The claims are large. In March 2025 a claim pending in Andhra Pradesh averaged Rs 3.50 crore; in the rest of India, Rs 46 lakh.
The question asked in particular about the Visakhapatnam CGST commissionerate. The ministry said it had no claims pending more than 60 or 90 days in the last three years. The amounts pending in Andhra Pradesh therefore sit with the state’s other central tax formations, which the answer does not name.
Teal: Andhra Pradesh. Grey: the rest of India. Source: Ministry of Finance, answer to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2478, 3 August 2026, Annexure-I.
Between 60 and 90 days
On 31 March 2026 more money was pending between 60 and 90 days, Rs 163.60 crore in 64 claims, than past 90 days. Uttar Pradesh’s 27 claims account for Rs 154.11 crore of it, 94.2%. Any of these still undecided 30 days later would have crossed 90 days.
What the answer does not give
Interest that fell due, and interest denied. The question asked for both. The answer gives only interest paid: Rs 0.69 crore in 2023-24, Rs 1.56 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 14.35 crore in 2025-26, Rs 16.60 crore in all. Section 56 of the CGST Act provides for interest on a refund ordered but not paid within 60 days of the application. Without the interest that fell due, what was paid cannot be checked against what was payable.
Sectors. The question asked for seafood, pharmaceutical and engineering exporters and for MSMEs. The answer gives states, not sectors.
State tax offices. A refund claim is decided by central or state tax officers depending on which administration the taxpayer is assigned to. These figures are for central tax formations only.
The ministry’s reasons for delay: taxpayers submitting documents and replies late, taxpayers asking for claims to be kept pending, and “in a limited number of cases system-related issues.”
Got it right
The fall in the 90-day backlog is the ministry’s own figure, and the answer sets out what is meant to keep it down: refunds of IGST paid on exports processed automatically through the customs system; a provisional refund of 90% within seven days for zero-rated supplies, on a risk evaluation by the system; the same 90% provisional refund extended by the Finance Act, 2026 to accumulated credit under an inverted duty structure; status tracking at every stage on the common portal; and reasons for every rejection in a speaking order.
Pending more than 90 days, state by state
| State / UT | 31 March 2024 | 31 March 2025 | 31 March 2026 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claims | Rs crore | Claims | Rs crore | Claims | Rs crore | |
| Andhra Pradesh | 70 | 254.56 | 77 | 269.86 | 20 | 32.37 |
| Maharashtra | 265 | 96.05 | 107 | 37.61 | 13 | 12.50 |
| Delhi | 196 | 52.31 | 104 | 36.60 | 15 | 8.56 |
| Haryana | 43 | 3.50 | 33 | 88.46 | 12 | 4.21 |
| Gujarat | 164 | 39.12 | 39 | 4.86 | 6 | 1.72 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 267 | 139.84 | 60 | 16.45 | 15 | 1.53 |
| Karnataka | 55 | 29.11 | 18 | 24.29 | 4 | 1.47 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 46 | 3.31 | 29 | 1.27 | 11 | 0.64 |
| West Bengal | 56 | 4.03 | 33 | 0.67 | 6 | 0.59 |
| Punjab | 15 | 6.58 | 47 | 6.84 | 4 | 0.48 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 1 | 0.02 | 3 | 5.35 | 1 | 0.02 |
| Telangana | 20 | 0.64 | 9 | 1.18 | 1 | 0.01 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 18 | 1.19 | 2 | 0.01 | 1 | 0.01 |
| Tamil Nadu | 44 | 37.86 | 34 | 38.27 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Rajasthan | 10 | 8.68 | 2 | 22.00 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Odisha | 23 | 0.31 | 29 | 2.48 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ladakh | 3 | 1.89 | 6 | 1.29 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Assam | 5 | 0.02 | 9 | 0.59 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Chandigarh | 4 | 0.10 | 3 | 0.56 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Goa | 8 | 3.22 | 7 | 0.28 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Tripura | 0 | 0.00 | 8 | 0.23 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Uttarakhand | 185 | 11.42 | 4 | 0.10 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Kerala | 30 | 0.22 | 21 | 0.06 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Bihar | 5 | 0.11 | 6 | 0.06 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu | 14 | 1.51 | 5 | 0.05 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 14 | 0.05 | 14 | 0.05 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Chhattisgarh | 15 | 0.13 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Nagaland | 2 | 0.03 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Jharkhand | 5 | 0.02 | 2 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Mizoram | 7 | 0.01 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Sikkim | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Puducherry | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| India (printed total) | 1,592 | 695.84 | 712 | 559.50 | 110 | 64.10 |
States and UTs with no claim pending more than 90 days in any of the three years are left out of this table. Every row, and the 60-to-90-day table, is in the CSV.
How we did this
- Source: the Ministry of Finance’s answer to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2478, answered on 3 August 2026, parts (a) to (e) and Annexure-I.
- Adds up: the 37 state rows sum to the printed totals exactly in claims, and within Rs 0.03 crore of rounding in amounts, in both tables and all three years.
- Adds up, interest table: the printed total for CGST (Rs 6.87 crore) is the sum of the SGST column, and the printed total for SGST (Rs 7.06 crore) is, to rounding, the sum of the CGST column. The two appear transposed. The grand total, Rs 16.60 crore, is unaffected.
- Puducherry shows one claim pending more than 90 days in March 2024 with no amount; we count the amount as nil.
- Download the data: gst-refunds-pending-2024-2026.csv. Our method and labels are on the Data Audit method page.
Questions
Do these figures cover every GST refund claim in India?
No. A refund claim is decided by central or state tax officers depending on which administration the taxpayer is assigned to. The answer gives claims pending with central tax formations only; claims with state tax departments are not in it.
Is interest due on a late GST refund?
Section 56 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 provides for interest on a refund that is ordered but not paid within 60 days of the application being received. The ministry gave Parliament the interest it paid; it did not give the interest that fell due or the cases where interest was denied, though both were asked.
Does a pending claim mean the refund was refused?
No. A pending claim is one not yet decided on 31 March. The ministry said delays come mainly from taxpayers submitting documents and replies late, and asking for claims to be kept pending while they gather documents or answer show cause notices, and in a limited number of cases from system-related issues.
Where does the data come from?
From the Ministry of Finance's answer to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2478, answered on 3 August 2026: the pendency table in part (a), the interest table in part (c) and the state tables in Annexure-I.
Corrections
No corrections so far. If any figure here is wrong, send the correcting document to editor@oquilia.com and we will correct it and record the change on this page.