Customs Complications – Board solutions?
RECENTLY Member (Cus & EP) of CBEC, SK Goel chaired a meeting of the Customs Consultative Group in Mumbai. We bring you some of the queries raised and the Member's crisp replies.
Q: Non-Availability of Appraising Officers/Dy. Commissioners: Since the appraising officers are also assigned work related to attending court cases etc. many a time they go to court and remain there the full day for 2 to 3 days. This causes undue hardship to the importers. Appraisers who are assigned the current appraising activity should not be allocated the work relating to attending the court cases. May be a team of experts be allocated for the court related work.
A: Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai-I explained that the officers conversant with the case are required to assist the Departmental Counsels in order to ensure that facts of the case/departmental standpoint is correctly brought to the notice of the Court. There are instances wherein the Courts have directed that conversant officers should be present during the course of hearing. However, orders indicating the alternate officer who shall attend to the work during the absence of officer holding a regular charge have been issued to take care of such eventualities.
Q: Bill of Entry does not show CVD. In case imports have been completed prior to fulfillment of Export Obligation & thereafter DFIA has been made transferable, the following problems are faced:
a)Against transferable DFIA when Bill of Entry (BE) is submitted to Customs, all duties including CVD are calculated and are shown as “Foregone”.
b)As per para 4.2.6 of FTP & Para 4.36A of Hand Book of Procedures against transferable DFIA, while duties, etc. are exempted, CVD has to be paid through TR6 challan. Therefore, in BE while CVD is shown “Foregone”, the same is paid separately through TR6 challan.
For claiming CENVAT against payment of CVD under transferable DFIA, both copies of BE & TR6 challan are submitted.
c) Central Excise authorities raised objections towards claiming CENVAT for the CVD paid through TR6 challan on the ground that BE has shown CVD as “ Foregone”
A: DG (Systems) promised to examine the software and carry out necessary changes, if needed, on priority.
Q: Time taken for Customs Clarifications from CBEC: It takes minimum 2-3 weeks to even months and at times goods are held at the port for want of such clarifications. The clarifications should be issued in time bound manner and should not take more than 2-5 days even if consultation is required from another ministry.
A: R eferences received from field formations and trade are being attended to timely. However, no timeline can be fixed in this regard due to the complexities involved.