This circular provides clarification on furnishing of Bond or Letter of Undertaking (LUT) by exporters who supply goods or services without payment of integrated tax under rule 96A of the CGST Rules, in view of initial difficulties faced on the GST common portal.

It clarifies that exporters opting to export without payment of IGST are required to furnish a Bond or LUT in FORM GST RFD-11 prior to export. Since the online module for filing FORM RFD-11 was not operational at the time, exporters were permitted to submit the form manually.

To reduce hardship, the circular specifies that the jurisdictional Assistant or Deputy Commissioner is the proper officer authorised to accept the Bond or LUT, instead of the jurisdictional Commissioner. Exporters may download FORM GST RFD-11 from the CBEC website and submit the duly filled form manually to the jurisdictional Assistant/Deputy Commissioner until the electronic facility becomes available.

The clarification applies to all applications filed on or after 1 July 2017 and was issued to ensure uniformity and facilitate uninterrupted exports during the initial phase of GST implementation.